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TOUCH SCREEN PROBLEMS
My husband and I voted yesterday and I had problems with the touch-screen system, so in our case 50% of the machines weren’t initially recording our selections properly.
The first thing to note is that the Republican was the first person listed in every race—regardless of alphabetization, incumbency or any other factor. The Democratic candidate was listed second. Any other candidates appeared below these two. This fact was important because in the first two races as I moved my hand toward the second box, the first box lit up. Fortunately, I had read the instructions on the first screen and knew that if I touched the checked box, it would be “unchecked.” This I did and then tried to move my finger straight in toward the box I wanted to select. I had to touch the box two or three times in once case before an “X” appeared in my chosen box.
By the time I got to the third office I began moving my hand up from the bottom of the screen toward the top rather than from the top down. This seemed to work and I proceeded to complete my voting process.
There are several lessons that I took away from this effort—and ones that you should keep in mind as you begin your voting process.
1) Remember that if a box you did not select is checked, touching it again (or possibly for the first time) should “uncheck” it. If this does not happen, you need to contact a poll worker and get assigned to a new machine.
2) If at all possible, take a good old fashioned wooden pencil with you when you vote and touch your selections with the eraser end of the pencil. This should eliminate the “shadow” effect of using your finger. If you do not have a pencil (or other such item such as the heel end of a ballpoint pen) move your hand from the bottom of the screen toward the top until you get to the box you want then touch it firmly.
3) Be sure to review your final ballot which will be displayed after you have completed your vote. It will take a minute or two to scroll down and up to view all of your selections (the scrolling arrows are on the left side of the screen), but DO IT!! If any of the selections are not the ones you made, you can still back up by touching the “PREVIOUS” button at the bottom of the display until you get to the screen you need and try again. Be sure to review ALL of your selections again after you have made the correction.
4) If, despite all of your efforts you cannot get the correct selection/s to display, report the problem to a poll worker. Get the problem on record and ask to be assigned to another machine to try again. Be polite but insistent (the poll workers are NOT the ones at whom you should be mad) but do not leave the polling place without casting a ballot that correctly displays the way you voted.
5) If you do have a problem, try to document it by photographing, recording, or just writing it down, preferably at the polling place. Then report the problem to the following website: www.blackboxvoting.org
You can also report problems to the Democratic National Committee at the following number: 1-888-DEM-VOTE (1-888-336-8683)
Across the nation early voters are reporting that voting machines are miss-recording votes and in every recorded instance the mistake favors the Republican. This defies the laws of chance and demonstrates why the voting process shouldn’t be in the hands of corporations who secretly program these systems. If half of the voters need to fight the touch-screen machines to cast the ballot they want, the trust in the process and people who conduct the vote is suspect at a minimum.
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