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.