NYT: Voters Find Some Machines Harder to Use

[DeepModem Mom]

Voters Find Some Machines Harder to Use
By SEWELL CHAN
Published: August 28, 2006

With New York State facing a looming deadline to modernize its election technology, a new report offers evidence that one of the two major types of voting machines being considered has a higher rate of unrecorded votes, suggesting that it is too confusing for many people.

The report, which the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law intends to release today, examined election records from thousands of counties across the nation since 2000....For the overwhelming majority of the state’s 11.6 million registered voters, the changes will mean the end of the creaky lever machines that have been used for decades.

One of the two types of machines under consideration is the direct-recording electronic or D.R.E. systems, in which voters push a button or touch a screen to choose a candidate, and the ballot is automatically recorded and counted.

The other is the optical-scan system, in which voters mark an oval or arrow next to a candidate’s name on a paper ballot, which is then scanned into a machine at the precinct, allowing the voter to find and fix any errors.

The choice, however, is further complicated because the State Board of Elections has ruled that state law requires the use of a “full face” ballot — a ballot that displays all candidates for all races on a single page or screen....The direct-recording electronic system is not inherently flawed, the report found, but when it is combined with full-face ballots, there seems to be more difficulty, particularly in areas with more black, Hispanic and low-income voters....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/28/nyregion/28voting.html

[EFerrari]

1. So, we're to expect "black, Hispanic and low-income" votes

to be spoiled? Gee, thank you NYTs, for trying to reframe vote suppression!

I would have never thought of it on my own. :sarcasm:

[Ignacio Upton]

2. I hope my state isn't stupid enough to chose DRE's without a paper trail

If Diebold is chosen, I hope that a Carry Nation-type of figure goes around and smashes them. The lever machines are fine, but unfortunately no one makes them anymore.:mad:

[Sherman A1]

3. Yes,

I really liked the lever machines. Haven't seen them for a very, very long time, but I really liked them.

[wakeme2008]

4. And Joey in Conn lost on lever machines

:)

[DeepModem Mom]

5. daytime kick