Submitted by Socialist With ... on Wed, 2006/10/18 - 8:20pm
Today was the first day of early voting in Knox County. I voted a little after 5:00 PM at Farragut Town Hall. There were only about three or four other voters there, and with a dozen or so voting machines, there was no waiting. I overheard one of the election workers say they'd had over 500 people so far (if I heard him right).
The ballot is blissfully shorter than the War-And-Peace sized ballot we had to endure during the primary, when we had to vote on all those county officers and every judge east of the Mississippi. However, the current ballot is a little confusing, especially with the new electronic voting machines. We had two state constitutional amendments (please vote NO on Amendment 1) and four county charter amendments. Using the little scroll wheel to move forward to the next ballot item, the cursor would first land on the text of the amendment, but the Yes/No boxes for that amendment sometimes appeared on the next screen. It would be easy for a voter to highlight the amendment text, press the Enter button, and scroll forward without realizing they'd skipped that question. The ballot scores pretty low in the user interface design department.
The software ought to be modified to keep the ballot question and its Yes/No boxes on the same screen.
Just be careful as you vote, and review your choices very carefully. The last screen gives you a chance to review your choices and make changes. Scan that final screen diligently. It's easy to skip something on this ballot, even though it's a lot shorter than the last one.
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Using the little scroll
Using the little scroll wheel to move forward to the next ballot item, the cursor would first land on the text of the amendment, but the Yes/No boxes for that amendment sometimes appeared on the next screen. It would be easy for a voter to highlight the amendment text, press the Enter button, and scroll forward without realizing they'd skipped that question.
Thanks for the heads up. That's a pretty serious deal. Hope Greg Mackay is reading. Maybe they need to post some additional instructions?
I haven't voted in Blount Co. yet. I'll be on the lookout, though, and let you know if ours has the same issue.
Hmm
I'll look into that tommorrow.
One of these days we are going to have a normal election....
Greg Mackay
Administrator of Elections
Knox County
One of these days we are
One of these days we are going to have a normal election....
Job security Greg, it could be worse.
One of these days we are
One of these days we are going to have a normal election....
We feel your pain, Greg. It could be worse. At least we're not in Florida.
That is scary.
That is scary.
I was about to ask if any
I was about to ask if any Knox County resident could vote at Farragut Town Hall, since it's the most convenient for me, but I found the answer here at Knoxviews!
Yes, I think i'll vote early this year.
Secession
Any Knox County registered voter can vote at any of the Knox County early voting locations, including Farragut Town Hall.
Farragut hasn't seceded from Knox County. Yet.
--Socialist With A Gold Card
"I'm a socialist with a gold card. I firmly believe we need a revolution; I'm just concerned that I won't be able to get good moisturizer afterwards." --Brett Butler
Heard a rumor the early vote
Heard a rumor the early vote turnout today in Davidson was pretty high. Good news.
Heard a rumor the early vote
Heard a rumor the early vote turnout today in Davidson was pretty high. Good news.
I hope that's the case in Shelby, too.
Brian A.
I'd rather be cycling.
Voteing Machines
Please Please Please tell me they are not Diebold machines. If they are I may just stay home...
-- aultl
They are not Diebold
They are not Diebold machines, unless you are in Memphis. In Knox County (and Blount Co.) they use the Hart InterCivc eSlate machines. Here are instructions for using the eSlate:
http://knoxcounty.org/election/eslate/pdf/howto_use_eslate.pdf
I just voted
"but the Yes/No boxes for that amendment sometimes appeared on the next screen."
All of my charter amendment had the yes/no box on the same screen as the wording. How did your "somtimes" appear on the next screen?
I don't remember which
I don't remember which specific amendment it was, or whether it was state or county. I do remember at least one amendment where the text appeared at the lower right corner of the screen, and the Yes/No boxes appeared at the top left of the next screen. I wish I could remember which specific amendment it was.
Does the layout of the screens depend on the voter's district? For example, Strader ran unopposed, so would his ballot entry take up less room on the screen than a two-candidate race? Would that cause subsequent screens to flow differently?
Thanks for looking into this.
--Socialist With A Gold Card
"I'm a socialist with a gold card. I firmly believe we need a revolution; I'm just concerned that I won't be able to get good moisturizer afterwards." --Brett Butler
that may be
Does the layout of the screens depend on the voter's district?
That may be. I am in the city and those questions would have to push the rest of the ballot back. Mine would have to be different from a county voter. I will look into that.
Please Please Please tell me
No, no, no, no, no.
Even if it is a Diebold machine, the last thing you should do is stay home.
1) There is no such thing as a national election. And Republicans don't control every precinct and every county election commisssion and state board of elections.
2) While it has been demonstrated that these systems are hackable and prone to error, you still need to participate.
3) Who needs to hack a system if, just by suggesting that the system is rigged, that it gets people to stay home? Hacking would just be redundant.
Most elections are determined by turnout. And voter ID laws, "losing" legitimate voter registrations, false polling place information, false arrest warnings, and innuendo campaigns about the integrity of the ballot box are great ways to suppress the vote.
I sometimes wonder if this Diebold thing is the head fake, and the real work to strip [Democratic-leaning] voters of their rights is the actual goal. Don't forget that some of your elected representatives thought that THIS YEAR was a fine-n-dandy time to abolish (by failing to renew) the Voting Rights Act, even despite the widespread (and sometimes credible) allegations of rigging, malfeasance, and fraud in the last couple of elections.
If you think the system is rigged, vote anyway. If you don't like the candidates, vote anyway.
If you feel completely turned off, that's when you know they got to you.
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