I just voted early...demanded paper balot and got it only after

[astonamous]

I insisted several times. Then they made an announcement to all those waiting in the 1.5 hour line and lots of people opted to use paper ballots. I was surprised that for the last couple of weeks of early voting no one had insisted before. The election officials there didn't appear to have a system set up for paper ballots.

By the way...I'm in Salt Lake City, Utah and voted at the county building.

Trudy
www.pryorsplanet.com
www.richardpryor.com

[texpatriot2004]

1. So glad to hear it nm

[greenbriar]

3. sean blowme hannit y is going to be in SL tomorrow he said there were no

protestors


said he was glad to be going to a city that thinks like him

[keepCAblue]

2. Santa Clara County, CA: "Paper ballots strongly discouraged."

I had my training this morning as an election officer for a precinct in Santa Clara County (northern CA). Prior to attending the training I had received an email from Pollworkers for Democracy stating that, in response to citizen concerns, the Sec of State's office issued a memo to all counties that paper ballots WOULD be made available to anyone who asked for them and if the machines/power should malfunction.

At today's training however, the county Registrar of Voters staff issued the dictum that we, the election officers, are to strongly DISCOURAGE voters' use of paper ballots. Tom, the trainer, in addressing the very large crowd of election officers was very dismissive of the concerns of "a handful of people who made a lot of noise," thus prompting the Sec. of State's office to require all counties to make paper ballots available. He further issued the dictum to all election officers that "you do not, should not, and WILL NOT encourage a voter to use a paper ballot." He said paper ballots would be, in fact, sample ballots and that each precinct would only be given 20-25 sample ballots for that purpose. When I asked how the sample ballots would be counted, he said they would NOT be hand counted, but that Registrar of Voters' employees, at the election close, would transfer the info on the sample ballot onto an absentee ballot, which would then be read via an optical scanner. So, in other words, people who vote via paper ballot will not only risk their votes being possibly corrupted by an optical scanner, but also by the person who "translates and tranfers" those paper ballot votes onto an absentee ballot.

I also found out the DRE voting machines being used Santa Clara County are delivered to their polling locations DAYS before the election and just left there, with no one to monitor them for security. For example, the five DREs for my precinct were delivered by a county truck to my precinct polling place on Wednesday, Nov. 1st. The DREs were left in the recreation room of an apartment complex which presently has no manager on duty. The rec room is supposedly locked, but any maintenance person or person filling in for the absent manager can get the key to gain entry to the rec room and, hence, the unsecured DREs. These DREs will remain in the rec room, unattended, from the time the were delivered (Wednesday, Nov. 1st) until the polls close, Tuesday, Nov. 7th at 8 p.m.

I'm utterly appalled at the laxity of security shown by my county of residence, and at the scoffing, derisive attitude they displayed with regard to the Sec. of State's mandate that paper ballots be made available at all precincts, to anyone who asks.

Un-fucking-believable.

[jonnywishbone97]

4. I voted absentee so I had a paper trail

And I will always vote that way because of these slimy Diebold machines.

[newyawker99]

9. Hi jonnywishbone97!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[astonamous]

5. We were told that our paper ballots would be counted along

with the absentee ballots. Not optically scanned. At this point I don't think there is any way of counting on your vote counting.

I mean, if I voted and a tally board lit up my vote and every vote as it was happening at each polling place, then I would almost feel like it counted, but who's to know what happens to punch cards, paper ballots and absentee ballots once they leave your hands...not to mention the voting machines.

My main point of my insisting on a paper ballot today was to make others aware of their options. A lot of older people in line that would feel a lot better with the paper than they do with a computer. They were all worried that they wouldn't be able to figure out how to use the machines. I even heard some of my patients in the waiting room this last week talking about not voting because they were worried about the "New Machines".

Trudy
www.pryorsplanet.com
www.richardpryor.com

[hvn_nbr_2]

6. That really sucks

Mark a sample ballot!?!? Why don't they just say, here, scribble some notes on this scratch paper and maybe someone will do something with it. I didn't bother getting an absentee ballot because they were making paper ballots available. If I'd known they meant "paper ballots heh-heh," I'd have done differently. I wonder if that apartment complex rec room is the same one I vote in; probably half the county votes in an apartment complex rec room.

[keepCAblue]

7. Exactly my point.

Most polling places are rec rooms, school rooms, etc. where there is no oversight or authorized security. Virtually anyone can come and go within those six or seven days the DREs are left unattended.

[keepCAblue]

8. I've emailed the info to an election watchdog group

Who in turn is making my info available to an election legal team. They advised me of the following additional info about Santa Clara County:

You may also be interested to know that Santa Clara County has no
intention of following the CA election code which requires that end
of day vote totals be posted in the precinct.

Seems Santa Clara County thinks they are above state law.