Yuck, I just voted on a Diebold machine

[newsguyatl]

walking out of the polling place after voting on those machines, i felt unconvinced my vote will be counted. seeing "diebold" on the screen that counts MY votes was less than assuring.

i voiced my concern there at the polling place and just got off the phone with the ga elections office -- and the overall feeling is, 'yeh, so what.'


ugh.

[democratreformed]

1. More details please

Our county's supposed to get them. I am kinda unclear as to whether or not the state has gained enough extension time for them to miss me.

[onehandle]

2. Me too...

It was easier than an ATM, but that Diebold logo. Brrrr.

[littlejoe]

3. We still have paper ballots in Missouri.

[slackmaster]

4. First time here in California too

I liked the ergonomics of the Diebold machine, but I know enough about software to be very, vary afraid.

[w4rma]

13. Pretty on the outside, but the inside is a black box. (n/t)

[slackmaster]

15. It's a very important issue for all of us

If I ran the Zoo I'd insist that the software be designed the same way large industrial systems are made "fail-safe". One way is to commission two completely separate development teams, and keep them physically isolated from one another. The live system would incorporate both versions, and a wraparound layer would raise a red flag if both pieces of code don't produce identical results.

[maxanne]

5. that's so scary

newsguyatl - I'm thankful to live in a small town where we use paper ballots counted by our friends and neighbors.

The outcomes of this primary, especially in places like Georgia, will be interesting to watch.

[democratreformed]

6. Be careful

I vote in a town with a population of about 280. I thought there was no way I'd ever have to encounter one of those machines. Lo and behold, I read in the paper that my county has been picked to be one of the ones to get the new machines. The state has gained some sort of extension on the rule to implement them. Not sure how long, though.

[maxanne]

14. oh, bummer

I'm sorry to hear that - what state are you in?

I live in NH - where it won't happen any time soon. We're too cheap to buy machines - hell we don't want to fund public education!

[democratreformed]

17. Arkansas

Some kind of target for the feds, I have heard. And, of course, our wonderful Pres has already visited us twice in the last few months.
I'm not sure what type of program the state got the money (grant) from, but I know it was a federal thing that pumped the money into the state to implement them in "certain" areas. Like I said, the state has gained an extension on the implementation date based on not being able to decide which system to use. I don't know how long the extension is.

[newsguyatl]

7. it's kind of like

going to the atm machine, depositing lots of money, and not getting a receit of your transaction.

that's how i felt walking out.



thing is, i trust my bank a WHOLE lot more than i'd EVER trust diebold.

[slackmaster]

12. Diebold makes a lot of banking equipment

I used to work for one. We had Diebold ATMs among other kinds.

[many a good man]

8. Its a joke in Maryland

When the election official led me to my Diebold machine, I asked her for a paper ballot. She sarcastically replied, "yeah, I want one with those little hanging things." So I replied "Is that supposed to be funny? Sorry, but I don't find the integrity of elections a laughing matter."

She gave me a dirty look while I inserted the plastic card into the machine. The machine froze up! My card was stuck in the machine and they had to haul it away. It took about 5 minutes of discussion before they would give me another card. I wonder if anyone is going to vote on my card that was left in that broken voting computer.

The election judge told me that if I wanted a paper ballot that I had to go down to the Board of Elections. That this polling place would only accept computerized voting. So once again I left the polls with a bad feeling about democracy in this country...

[democratreformed]

9. I've been wondering what would happen if I just refused to use

their little machine and insisted on a paper ballot. Where's the Board of Elections? What towns have those?

[many a good man]

11. Its not YOUR ballot or MY ballot, its EVERYBODY'S ballots

There should be one Board of Elections in each county, probably located in the county seat.

But what good is one or two or 50% of the ballots being paper? You have to have a paper copy of each vote cast to be able to audit the election.

[salin]

16. or I wonder if those votes already cast on the "frozen computer"

get lost - and with no record... how would we know? I guess by the voting books (compare number of people who showed up at the poll to the total number of votes cast)... but then - so lets say 400 votes were found to be "gone" (frozen) no way to gauge voter intent.

[PatGund]

10. Yeah....

Used one out here in California, (San Diego). Easy, but I was not happy with the liebold....err, I mean diebold system. General election, I may vote with an absentee ballot