As Tuesday's election approaches, instructions and advice for voters, especially those using the new touch-screen machines
As I write this, the primary election is but a mere five days away. While it will whittle down the list of candidates in some races, it will be the deciding factor in others. I want to encourage everyone to go to the polls and vote. It is not just a privilege, but a responsibility that each and every citizen who's eligible to vote has.
This will also be the first election in which the Diebold touch-screen voting machines are used - one in each polling place. Ronald Kane Hardy at Babblemur is a poll worker who has received fairly substantial training on these new machines and he has written a couple of very excellent pieces about them and what you need to know before voting using the touch-screen machines.
He was gracious enough to allow us to republish the material here but we have also provided links back to the original pieces on his web site.
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Touch screen machines in place for the Primary
by Babblemur
Across Wisconsin, touch screen voting machines are being implemented in almost every polling place in time for the Primary Election on Sept. 12. In Winnebago County, there will be one Diebold TSx touch screen machine in each poll location, along with the traditional optical scan ballots. As you may or may not know, I argued against the purchase and implementation of the Diebold TSx machines in Winnebago County on this site and before the County Board, but to no avail:
“Keep Diebold Voting Machines out of Winnebago Co.!” (May 16, 2006)
"County Board torn - No Diebold touch screen … yet” (May 16, 2006)
“The Brave and Diebold : our Democracy for Sale to the Highest Bidder” (June 15, 2006)
“Winnebago Co. votes on funding Diebold Tuesday” (June 20, 2006)
“Three Votes bring Diebold to Oshkosh” (June 20, 2006)
Now, as an election worker, I have been asked to be one of the two workers at my polling place to be trained on the Diebold TSx - setting it up, trouble shooting, taking it down, etc. Every polling station should have two poll workers trained on the machine. I went to a three hour training session put on by Diebold’s rep for the area and went through the crash course. Just a few notes on what to expect on Tuesday Sept. 12:
Cross over voting: For one thing, if you take a paper ballot for the optical scan reader, you will have all five political parties listed on it - but you can only vote for candidates in one party. If you ‘cross over’, your ballot will not count. Got that? Only vote for the Green Party candidates. If you slip over and cast a vote for Peg Lautenschlager on the Dem column, the whole ballot is worthless. That is state law. But if you vote using the Diebold Touchscreen, you won’t even have the opportunity to make that mistake. One of the first screens will ask you which party’s primary you are voting in, then you will only be given that party’s ballot.
Write-ins: If you want to write in a candidate, you can still use the touch screen. You actually get to ‘type’ the person’s name in that line. However, and this is important, election workers will hate you. At the end of the night, we have to open up the canister and pull out the reel of ballots on receipt paper and find each and every write-in candidate to log them on the ‘write in’ sheet. But don’t let that stop you, that’s our job. Even if you write in candidates using the paper ballots we still have to shuffle through them all to find the write ins. The only difference is that the touchscreen print out will be legible.
What to expect: If you are going to use the touch screen instead of paper ballot, what will happen is instead of a ballot you will be given a plastic card that is programmed for your ward. If you need visual assistence (such as the audio instructions or large print screen display) you will have to state that before you get that plastic card so it is programmed correctly. You stick the card in the machine, follow the instructions, and vote for your candidates by touching them. You can flip back and forth between races and change your votes, there are about three screens worth of offices on the Primary. When you are satisfied, you press the “Print Ballot” button. But Wait! You aren’t done yet! At this point, the paper printout gets pulled up into a viewing window, where you can see which candidates you voted for, one page at a time. It is important to check this, because in the event of a recount this is the ballot that will be counted. You will hit "next page" until the entire ballot has been displayed. Then you have to hit the final button - “Cast this ballot”. Once you do this, your ballot is in, and can’t be changed. If upon reading the printout you decide to change your mind, you can VOID that ballot by pressing a button and go back and do it all over again. You can do this twice. When you have “cast your ballot”, the plastic card pops out of the machine, and you will have to return that card to the poll worker. You will not get a “paper receipt”. Those are sucked up into the machine into a locked canister.
Will there be problems? Probably. The primary should be pretty smooth, but when November rolls around there are going to be a lot of problems. The more use the machines get, the more likely problems will crop up. If the paper roll runs out, there will be a problem. If people walk out with the plastic voter cards, there will be a problem. If the machine does something really weird, like freeze up or go down, poll workers will not be authorized to ‘re-program’ them - and in fact may not be able to. Votes will have to be salvaged from the paper roll and manually tabulated (which wouldn’t be a bad thing…).
Should I use them? No.
Hardy wrote a follow-up piece that is important reading for those wanting to or planning on using the touch-screen machines. It follows here:
More polling station changes
by Babblemur
I earlier wrote something about the new touch screen machines that will be in place in most all Wisconsin polling stations on Sept. 12. Let me add a few other things to expect for both die-hard voters and especially first time voters:
Name before address: In Oshkosh, if you are a die-hard, you know to go in and give your address first, then your name. Now, because of the state-wide voter list, the Voter List at the polling stations are organized by NAME FIRST, then address.
Ineligible Voters & the Dead: The Wisconsin Elections Board has issued for the first time an Ineligible Voters List and a Wisconsin Deaths list to the clerks. The ineligible Voters List appears to have come from the Dept. of Corrections, so it is likely made up of felons and other criminals. If you are on one of these lists you will not be able to vote.
Bring ID and Proof of Residency: If you are not on the state wide voter list, be prepared to register to vote at the poll. To do so, be prepared to bring in your Driver’s Liscence and Proof of Residence. If you have been issued a WI Driver’s Liscence you MUST use that number to register. You can only use your social security number if you have never been issued a DL. If you know your WI-DL number, that is sufficient - but bring proof of address.
Students: If you are a student, no matter what you should plan on bringing a photo ID and Proof of Residency (Something computer generated with your address). Students tend to move enough that it is likely that you are not listed at your current address. To be safe: bring ID and Proof of Residency.
Provisional Ballots: If a voter thinks they should be able to vote but can’t because they are not on the List, and have no drivers license with them, they can still vote via “Provisional Voting”. The voter will need to either return with the proper ID, or show up at the City Clerk’s office with relevant information to complete the ballot.
Vote September 12th, 2006
This will also be the first election in which the Diebold touch-screen voting machines are used - one in each polling place. Ronald Kane Hardy at Babblemur is a poll worker who has received fairly substantial training on these new machines and he has written a couple of very excellent pieces about them and what you need to know before voting using the touch-screen machines.
He was gracious enough to allow us to republish the material here but we have also provided links back to the original pieces on his web site.
____________________________________________________________________________
Touch screen machines in place for the Primary
by Babblemur
Across Wisconsin, touch screen voting machines are being implemented in almost every polling place in time for the Primary Election on Sept. 12. In Winnebago County, there will be one Diebold TSx touch screen machine in each poll location, along with the traditional optical scan ballots. As you may or may not know, I argued against the purchase and implementation of the Diebold TSx machines in Winnebago County on this site and before the County Board, but to no avail:
“Keep Diebold Voting Machines out of Winnebago Co.!” (May 16, 2006)
"County Board torn - No Diebold touch screen … yet” (May 16, 2006)
“The Brave and Diebold : our Democracy for Sale to the Highest Bidder” (June 15, 2006)
“Winnebago Co. votes on funding Diebold Tuesday” (June 20, 2006)
“Three Votes bring Diebold to Oshkosh” (June 20, 2006)
Now, as an election worker, I have been asked to be one of the two workers at my polling place to be trained on the Diebold TSx - setting it up, trouble shooting, taking it down, etc. Every polling station should have two poll workers trained on the machine. I went to a three hour training session put on by Diebold’s rep for the area and went through the crash course. Just a few notes on what to expect on Tuesday Sept. 12:
Cross over voting: For one thing, if you take a paper ballot for the optical scan reader, you will have all five political parties listed on it - but you can only vote for candidates in one party. If you ‘cross over’, your ballot will not count. Got that? Only vote for the Green Party candidates. If you slip over and cast a vote for Peg Lautenschlager on the Dem column, the whole ballot is worthless. That is state law. But if you vote using the Diebold Touchscreen, you won’t even have the opportunity to make that mistake. One of the first screens will ask you which party’s primary you are voting in, then you will only be given that party’s ballot.
Write-ins: If you want to write in a candidate, you can still use the touch screen. You actually get to ‘type’ the person’s name in that line. However, and this is important, election workers will hate you. At the end of the night, we have to open up the canister and pull out the reel of ballots on receipt paper and find each and every write-in candidate to log them on the ‘write in’ sheet. But don’t let that stop you, that’s our job. Even if you write in candidates using the paper ballots we still have to shuffle through them all to find the write ins. The only difference is that the touchscreen print out will be legible.
What to expect: If you are going to use the touch screen instead of paper ballot, what will happen is instead of a ballot you will be given a plastic card that is programmed for your ward. If you need visual assistence (such as the audio instructions or large print screen display) you will have to state that before you get that plastic card so it is programmed correctly. You stick the card in the machine, follow the instructions, and vote for your candidates by touching them. You can flip back and forth between races and change your votes, there are about three screens worth of offices on the Primary. When you are satisfied, you press the “Print Ballot” button. But Wait! You aren’t done yet! At this point, the paper printout gets pulled up into a viewing window, where you can see which candidates you voted for, one page at a time. It is important to check this, because in the event of a recount this is the ballot that will be counted. You will hit "next page" until the entire ballot has been displayed. Then you have to hit the final button - “Cast this ballot”. Once you do this, your ballot is in, and can’t be changed. If upon reading the printout you decide to change your mind, you can VOID that ballot by pressing a button and go back and do it all over again. You can do this twice. When you have “cast your ballot”, the plastic card pops out of the machine, and you will have to return that card to the poll worker. You will not get a “paper receipt”. Those are sucked up into the machine into a locked canister.
Will there be problems? Probably. The primary should be pretty smooth, but when November rolls around there are going to be a lot of problems. The more use the machines get, the more likely problems will crop up. If the paper roll runs out, there will be a problem. If people walk out with the plastic voter cards, there will be a problem. If the machine does something really weird, like freeze up or go down, poll workers will not be authorized to ‘re-program’ them - and in fact may not be able to. Votes will have to be salvaged from the paper roll and manually tabulated (which wouldn’t be a bad thing…).
Should I use them? No.
Hardy wrote a follow-up piece that is important reading for those wanting to or planning on using the touch-screen machines. It follows here:
More polling station changes
by Babblemur
I earlier wrote something about the new touch screen machines that will be in place in most all Wisconsin polling stations on Sept. 12. Let me add a few other things to expect for both die-hard voters and especially first time voters:
Name before address: In Oshkosh, if you are a die-hard, you know to go in and give your address first, then your name. Now, because of the state-wide voter list, the Voter List at the polling stations are organized by NAME FIRST, then address.
Ineligible Voters & the Dead: The Wisconsin Elections Board has issued for the first time an Ineligible Voters List and a Wisconsin Deaths list to the clerks. The ineligible Voters List appears to have come from the Dept. of Corrections, so it is likely made up of felons and other criminals. If you are on one of these lists you will not be able to vote.
Bring ID and Proof of Residency: If you are not on the state wide voter list, be prepared to register to vote at the poll. To do so, be prepared to bring in your Driver’s Liscence and Proof of Residence. If you have been issued a WI Driver’s Liscence you MUST use that number to register. You can only use your social security number if you have never been issued a DL. If you know your WI-DL number, that is sufficient - but bring proof of address.
Students: If you are a student, no matter what you should plan on bringing a photo ID and Proof of Residency (Something computer generated with your address). Students tend to move enough that it is likely that you are not listed at your current address. To be safe: bring ID and Proof of Residency.
Provisional Ballots: If a voter thinks they should be able to vote but can’t because they are not on the List, and have no drivers license with them, they can still vote via “Provisional Voting”. The voter will need to either return with the proper ID, or show up at the City Clerk’s office with relevant information to complete the ballot.
Vote September 12th, 2006
posted by Cheryl Hentz at 12:47 PM
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