Poll: Means of voting

[vakkotaur]

[Poll #1291332]

Comments

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

Here in Texas, we use an electronic "eSlate" voting machine, but it's not actually touch-screen. It's got controls at the bottom: a dial for scrolling through selections, and four buttons labeled ENTER, PREV, NEXT, and CAST BALLOT.

So I selected "other" instead of "touch screen voting machine".

[wendyzski.livejournal.com]

Illinois has touch screens with a paper backup.

You enter your ballots on a touch screen, then at the end you review your choices on the screen and then your choices print out on a little rolly-paper cartridge-thing on the side for you to again check. Only after you review the paper backup and click OK does it record your ballot.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

I think Nevada has something similar to that.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Not all of Illinois, though. A large part of the state uses the optical scan, which I like better. You mark a real paper ballot with a felt tip pen, and feed it into a machine that scans it on the spot. If you did something invalid, like voting for two candidates for the same office, the ballot gets spit back out and you can get a new one and try again. If it all reads OK, then the reader keeps it and stores the ballots inside. These can be reviewed manually for a recount if necessary, and are very easy to read with human eyes (unlike the infamous "hanging chads" on Florida punch cards.)

[wendyzski.livejournal.com]

At least in Chicago, most early-voting sites did not have the optical scan machines.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I think most of the early voting was done on the touch screens. They are more portable, and since early voting sites were not necessarily the same as the regular election day locations, it seemed logical to use them.

[melskunk.livejournal.com]

As a comparison, until the very most recent election in Canada, the entire country voted one way: And X drawn in the circle beside the guy (or girl) you're voting for. That's it. Very low tech yet we always manage to get the election results in within 2 hours of the polls closing.

[thecanuckguy.livejournal.com]

For national and provincial elections, yes, but I can recall ballots where you complete the arrow with a black felt marker that's machine readable for civic governments going back about 15 years or so

The ballot would look something like this:



>>----     ---------> Candidate 1

>>----=====---------> Candidate 2

>>----     ---------> Candidate 3

>>----     ---------> Candidate 4

The ==s indicate a choice made for Candidate 2 by filling in the gap with felt pen.