Aaaaah election day... Standing in line with my fellow Americans waiting to cast my vote... When it's my turn I pull the lever and and the curtain closes behind me.... Wait a minute... Where's my curtain!? where are my tabs!?
Oh that's right, we've "upgraded". Wawaaaah....
So now in NY we have taken the huge step away from our 100yr old voting booths and sailed into the future of... Paper ballots? Doth my eyes deceive me? Paper Ballots?!
Ok... So you go up to the attendance table and a handed a gigantic paper ballot and a gigantic "privacy" folder (How's THAT for going Green). You take these over to a table with a visor (not unlike the folder blinders we used in elementary school to prevent cheating), and use the felt tipped black marker that is chained to the desk and fill in the little scantron bubbles (don't leave any errant marks on your sheet). These bubbles are labeled in tiny fine black print. Oh but never fear you visually challenged out there... They have provided a pocket with a huge magnifying sheet for your convenience.... The rest of you... Your out of luck. Better make sure you have impeccable fine motor skills, and are a whizz a sequencing or this system is definitely NOT for you. Aren't there some accessibility laws in place for this sort of thing?
Alright so with the bubbles filled in you put your ballot back in the folder and approach the scanner. You are now instructed to pull the ballot out a few inches and feed it into the machine. well that didn't work so well for me, I had to pull it out far enough that some of my bubbles were showing... (Oh, and remember that nice orderly line at the booths and then the pulling of the bar that reset all the tabs so nary a soul saw your votes?... Forget it.) No line... a cluster... around the scanner...I am standing there with my bubbles showing trying to get my ballot in the scanner with 3 people standing around me close enough to see my votes! Now, it might have just been me (though I am pretty tech savvy)... but the woman behind me had to take hers completely out of the folder to perform this last task, exposing her votes to the entire room.
So, to recap: No Privacy, bad for the environment, and inaccessible to any form of disabled (physical or otherwise). Real nice New York...
Thank you for our huge step into the archaic future. (Which incidentally we paid 50 million dollars for... but shhhhhhh)
About Me
- Storybook Belle
- Hi Everyone! Welcome to my technology blog. I am a School Librarian with a particular interest in technology and the accessibility of information. I frequently post my recommendations and opinions about new (or new to me) online resources, iPad and iPhone apps, etc. Questions, comments and suggestions are more than welcome.
It's so interesting to hear another person's perspective on the new voting machines. On the one hand they are simple enough for anyone who's ever attended high school and filled out a scantron to use, but on the other hand there are privacy concerns. The reason NY took the path they did on these voting machines has nothing to do with privacy and everything to do with accountability. To date, no one has been able to create an electronic voting system that can provide a guaranteed audit trail in the event a recount is required. Despite living a decade in the 21st Century our society is still suspect of computers. So now in NY we now have a paper ballot, which is read electronically, but preserves the actual physical ballot in the event a manual recount is requested. The new system is capable of transmitting a digital file to the Board of Elections to allow for instant results tabulation once the polls have closed, but that feature is currently disabled. Hence, the reason why we all stayed up until 3:00am waiting for the results. It's the classic example of change for the sake of change, without improving upon the previous system. Perhaps, someday, there will be an app for this.
ReplyDeleteFolders? What folders? I didn't get no stinkin' folder! Just a voter and his naked ballot fumbling and folding as our cluster waited our turns at feeding our ballots into the shredder....uhm, I mean "magical scantron voting safety device." Ok, perhaps that's a tad harsh, but I find it hard to believe that we Americans (New Yorkers in this case) are not capable of developing a simple, eco-friendly, secure, touch screen type electronic voting system. Even the Post Office has touch screens! Where's Apple when you need them (minus the made in China part). Yep, it seems possible to me. Maybe something that doesn't wipe out forests unnecessarily....never mind the stacks of huge paper ballots that were actually used, what about the wasted stacks? I mean enough ballots should have been printed to cover all voters, even though far below 100% show up to the polls. Talk about waste. I guess there's a government exempt status for going green. Sure, the electronic machine would have to generate a printed record of each vote, but there-in lies the big difference, only actual votes would be printed, not the huge ballot with every single option on it for every possible voter.
ReplyDeleteYes, the system worked. The election went on in NY and we survived, thankfully. On the flip side, maybe simple is better. Maybe we shouldn't be over-complicating the system with too much crazy technology that only a select few could figure out. As they say, keep it simple, stupid. Maybe.... But to this humble bubble-accurate voter, it feels like a step backwards. Yes, an archaic step.
Thanks for the great blog StoryBookBelle82.
PS - On a side note, I'm off to search Google for "folder blinders." Was I not part of this craze? Or was I just one of those "square" kids back in elementary school?
Jonathan, I agree there is definitely a need to keep a record of the actual ballots cast to double check the computers. But I must say "Anonymous" has the right idea. How about a touch screen system like they have in Texas but with a print out of the votes casted. That seems like the best of both worlds. A secure paper copy inside the machine like our old booths used to provide, and a digital copy sent instantly to Washington. It's hard to believe all the brightest minds employed by the government couldn't come up with that. If they aren't careful their WILL be an App for that before they get their act together and we'll be outsourcing our voting equipment to China (Blasphemous but effective!).
ReplyDeleteAnonymous!!! No "Privacy Folder"?! You mean you were all left milling around with your epidermis showing!? That's awful! I find this to be extremely inappropriate, And as Jonathan stated "The reason NY took the path they did on these voting machines has nothing to do with privacy and everything to do with accountability." But privacy was one of the most important aspects of casting our vote! Painstaking care was taken the last 222 years to ensure just that! We would have been better off just writing down the name of our candidate and folding a small paper into a box.
Oh... and PS... those "folder blinders". Remember the folders you had with the cool pictures on them? That was them.. We used to stand up two on the desk so we couldn't see out... innovative yes?
"I am standing there with my bubbles showing" ... priceless :)
ReplyDeleteI had the same experience. Ridiculous. 50 million? For 50 million they could *buy* half the votes.