Voting day, and something fishy going on in Missouri

[SmittynMo]

I had a unique day at the polling booth today. All was normal until I got to the touch screen. The instructor pulls up a screen indicating which party(platform) I was going to vote for. He stands there watching me as I touch Democrat. Then he inserts his device to make the vote official, and the voting begins, without him. Even though he had no control over what I was voting for, where is the privacy? This joker can secretly be keeping track of what party people are voting for. I find this fishy. Has anyone run into this type of situation.

[northoftheborder]

1. Yes, here where I vote, they have to insert a disc into the voting machine which brings up the ....

....correct ballot; different discs for different parties; now this was for the primary. I don't know how it works for general election, you wouldn't need that then. (I just moved here).

[still_one]

2. How would he know which ballot to give you? I guess you could vote absentee. /nt

[WCGreen]

3. Here in Ohio, you ask for the Democrat or Republican ballot....

[Inuca]

4. Similar to what happened to me

when I voted in the primary back in 08. I am in IL, so it's not a blue/red thing. I did not give it a 2nd thought, and I don't really think it's an issue. What is the problem if they know what party people are voting for?

[SmittynMo]

5. Well if this is the way it is,

then something needs to be changed. No one should be looking over my shoulder for any reason at all.

[Webster Green]

6. I run a precinct during elections in CA.

The election workers know from the voting roster which party the voter is registered with, in order to present them with the correct ballot.

None of us give a shit what party a voter is registered with, other than to give them the ballot for their party. It would be a matter of public record as to how many voters are registered with the various parties.

[msongs]

7. massive democratic party failure to secure elections. nt

[jberryhill]

8. You must choose whether you are voting in the D or R primaries

Maybe I'm dense, but I'm failing to see the issue here.

The machine can serve up either a D primary ballot or an R primary ballot. Once you select your ballot, that choice is locked in for your vote.

How would this differ from requesting one or the other ballot in paper form?

[SmittynMo]

9. I understand you must choose D or R

That decision should be private. Not some yahoo watching me and asking questions. Once I said democrat, everyone in the room knew.. This is a privacy issue with the voting system.

[Webster Green]

10. I actually called the board of elections about this issue one time.

I found it strange that my party affiliation was loudly announced by the election clerk. The person at the board of elections told me that it was just the way it was done, but perhaps the clerk should have been a little more discreet.

Since I started working as an election inspector, I urge my clerks to try to keep the party affiliation as private as possible, but that info is still passed verbally from the roster clerk to the ballot clerk. During the last primary, I had one clerk who felt the need to loudly announce every voter's affiliation, and I told her to tone it down. She had just loudly barked "Republicans" to everyone in the precinct, as a couple was checking in. I saw from the looks on their faces that they were not happy campers (this is a overwhelmingly democratic and progressive area). This particular clerk took offense at me taking issue with how she was doing her job, and she fucking went off on me. She will not be working as a clerk during future elections.