Be careful about hitting the straight party button!!!!!

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

I just wanted to put this here just in case. I've heard too many stories (sorry just anecdotal) about straight party tickets being easier to tamper with. I voted today on a touch screen thingie (not Diebold) and got no paper ticket, no exit polling, no paper trail at all. I went through the list (four pages) of races and voted Dem in each one, except two where I voted Lib instead of voting for the Republican. You just have to be very careful and review where you hit it with the little touch screen pen and make sure your Dem candidates are lit up. I must have checked over mine three times before I pressed the red VOTE! button.

I also have heard you need to vote in the uncontested races, too, even if they are Reps. I don't know why that would make a difference, but be on the safe side and vote in every race.

[Zen Democrat]

1. No problem here. We darken the bubble -- and I only needed 1 bubble.

I don't see why the whole country doesn't vote like this. No room for error. Scantron reads the ballots. And there's a definitive paper trail.

Universities and law schools test this way. We should vote this way.

[Carolina]

12. totally agree

I teach at a medical school. For all exams, we use bubble sheets that are scanned. No problems have EVER occurred!

It works PERIOD.

[crimson333]

13. same here

been voting that way for as long as i can remember

[Carni]

2. Get this...my city has the old West Palm beach machines

I wish I were kidding...

I don't mean the punch card machines LIKE them I mean the very machines that determined selection 2000.

My city bought the machines

WTF?

[sandnsea]

5. You're voting on them?

Where are you? In truth, those machines can be okay if the machines are maintained and every voter is told to check their hanging chads. AND if the ballot is easy to vote. Please make sure all your voting precincts are telling people to check the chads and empty the chad receptacles. It is really wild anybody is voting on those things though, I thought that HAVA had made them illegal.

[Carni]

8. Southern Oakland county

In Michigan

[demokatgurrl]

11. If I were you and if there's still time-

get an absentee ballot and go out of town and help out on Election Day.

[leyton]

3. Where I live, in Charlotte, there is another danger-

President/VP are not covered on straight-party. You have to vote for the Democratic ticket, and then vote for Kerry separately.

[nonconformist]

4. Woah, really?

I had actually heard something about not voting a straight ticket, but I'm pretty disgusted about the uncontested race voting. I have a couple of uncontested Republicans on my ballot and I was planning NOT to vote in those races. Ugh.

[Atman]

6. We still use the crank lever machines here in CT!

I feel so much more confident with these ancient machines, for no real reason...still can't see what's going on, but I've used them my whole life and just trust them more.

[AnnInLa]

7. Yeah, we have those here in Louisiana too, but

we don't have to vote in races that we don't want to, do we? Just pull the little lever down in the races we want to vote in??

[69KV]

9. You do not have to vote in the uncontested races

...for your vote to count.

If there is an uncontested Repuke running, I just leave the ballot line blank or cast a write in vote. No way will I ever vote for a Repuke.

Fortunately I didn't have that situation at all this year. Every race on my ballot is either contested, or has an uncontested Democrat running. But if you do have an uncontested Repuke on the ballot there is no obligation to vote for them.

[demokatgurrl]

10. I may be paranoid but I always vote for each candidate

individually- even though 99.999% of the time it's straight Democratic. (I voted for Barbara Hafer for Gove. of Pa when the Dem candidate was anti-choice- and Hafer is now a Dem.)
I think it's better to choose each candidate. That way, if one of the levers/buttons whatever screws up at least SOME of your vote is counted.

[DallasTim]

14. New Voting System Seems Wrong

I voted yesterday and I am troubled by what I saw. In previous years, we used the system where a card was placed into a machine and then you turned pages and punched out the little holes. When you were through, you placed your card through a slit into a sealed and locked plastic bin. I understand that the Florida issues of 2000 may have caused some to question this system.

This year I walked in apparently just when a huge rush of people had been cleared out - I only waited about 1 minute. I was given a sticker which I thought was the standard sticker to announce that I had voted, but I noticed that it actually said "I Voted Touchscreen". I did not put on this sticker. I was given a small white plastic card, similar to a credit card. This card was inserted into the machine and I then followed a few screens on the display, selecting Kerry, any Democrat, if no Dem, then the Ind, if no Ind, then the Libertarian, if none of the above, I did not vote for the Repug. I was told that once the card has been used it can't be used again by the little white haired lady that was working there. Did she actually know this to be true, or did some salesman of the Diebold system tell her this. I wonder if this is actually true or not. Instead of placing this card into a sealed container, I was asked to give it to one of two people standing by the door, who had a number os such cards in their hand. I wonder if they remembered to place mine in the bucket, if such a bucket actually existed. What happened to my vote after I walked out the door? I saw several white cards scattered on the sign-in table. Were these blank cards or ones that had been voted on? I have no idea. There was no paper trail at all. If my card is bad, my vote won't count. If the guy at the door didn't want me to vote, he could have cut up my card as soon as I walked out the door. The Diebold machine could have encoded something on that card other than what I actually voted for... how am I to know. This just felt wrong.

Tim