Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Vote!



This is exactly like the machine I used the very first time I voted. Remember, in many parts of the United States today is a day to Vote!

6 comments:

Rolin said...

Thank you, I did.

Privacy? No curtains in sight. I had about the same space (and more privacy) at the men's urinals at the Pittsburgh Pirates' baseball stadium.

Br_er Rabbit

Sean C. said...

That's very similar to the machine I used today to vote in NYC. I love the lever machines -- it's the only way to go. Of-course we don't have anything so sophisticated as those motorized curtains here in NYC. You just push and flail your way in and out of the booth.

Bill C said...

And that is exactly the kind of machine that my grad student roommate went into to vote, only to have a helpful Chicago poll worker enter inside the curtain, pull the straight-ticket democratic lever, then the VOTE confirmation lever and tell him that was how one voted. When he complained, they threatened to call the nearby policeman to have him hauled away for obstructing the voting process. That was in the days when the voting machine was not the only kind of political machine in Chicago.

Kevin said...

Ah, yes, the 600 lbs beasts!

The ones I remember were even older, completely mechanical, with a level (what is this vote button???) that went Krrrrchunt!

The first year of the 180lbs Shuoptronic machines, many of the voters complained that it didn't "feel" like voting without that big lever, but operating a microwave.

A former election officer (can you tell by my identification via weight on each machine?)

Kevin

Anonymous said...

Remember the comment of Louisiana Governor Earl Long when he first saw a voting machine? At first he was a little dismayed (paper ballots are so much easier to falsify) but, after a little reflection, he said "Give me a little time alone with that thing and I'll be able to play it like a Stradivarius." - or something to that effect.

Scout

Anonymous said...

The Lakeland Two says...

Voted on something like this my first time waaaaayyyy back. We have been using fill-in-the-bubble computer ballots for at least the last 10+ years. We were chad-free in the 2000 mess.

Think anywhere there's humans someone figures out how "play" the system.