Florida's Early Voting Process Seems Rife For Another Challenge If Election Close
Early voting rolled out yesterday in Florida, and, if the West Delray Beach Library, where I voted this afternoon, is any indicator, the new paper/scan voting system will cause extreme delays, is easily subject to error, and throws the privacy of the secret ballot right out of the window.
I arrive at the library, one of seven polling places with early voting in my section of Palm Beach County, Florida, around 1:30 pm. There were eighty to one-hundred people waiting in line in front of the library to vote early. In 2004, with the computerized machines, a line that long took 45 minutes to process, so I hopped into the line, knowing that it might take a while.
It was a predominantly older crowd. At 46, I was one of the three youngest people on the line, which, given our area's population, and the lack of enthusiasm of younger people for voting, seems to be the norm for opening day of early voting in Florida.
In the first hour waiting, I got to know folks on line with me: The retired treasury agent, the lady who sold oxygen equipment and scooters, the teacher from the area Catholic School, and the retired navy man who was wearing his U.S.S. Antietam hat. A fine cross-section of voters.
By the second hour, we all agreed that, whatever your choice, the level and intensity of the rhetoric and anti-American, Joe-loving nonsense that have polluted the airwaves and the Internet for the last two weeks have been pretty nauseating. There was one guy who went on about Keith Olbermann, and said he preferred Bill O'Reilly because he was more moderate (No, that is not a typo.).
Heading into the third hour, I was wondering why it was taking so long to get through the door to the election room. Then I found out why.
I was handed a "Practice Sheet:"
Florida apparently is not using our computerized voting machines. No. To make a "paper" system, we have a whole new voting procedure.
Immediately it caused a stir in the line. Rather than vote on the machine, or punch a card, voters must connect the line from one side of the arrow to the other to indicate their vote. They must use the pen provided at the voting booth, or, we were told, the vote might not register.
When called, a few at a time, you enter the polling place. You are then ushered to a bank of laptops manned by election officials who take a form that you filled out hours ago and try to locate you on the computer.
Most of the poll workers are elderly, and not particularly adept at using the computers. My agent took almost five minutes to find me and issue me a ballot. One woman who exited the polling place after half an hour was apparently dead, even though she looked quite well. So they had to go and find a way to update the local computers to reflect her good fortune. This kept one of the ten stations occupied for nearly twenty minutes.
Once you are finished being processed, you move to another line in front of a large copier. There you wait as it spits out originals, two pages of 11x17 cardstock with your ballot. Each ballot was taking on the order of a minute to print, manually check, and place into a huge sleeve.
The polling officials were polite, and apologetic, but they could see the frustration that the process was creating. Two people who where in line in front of me where stuck there while someone tried to find out why their ballots never printed. I was lucky enough to have my ballot show up, so I moved on to a voting booth.
At 46, I can draw a line reasonably well, but the lady on the other side of me who was 73 had arthritis and was clucking about how hard it was going to be to make sure it was "right."
Outside, earlier, she had mentioned to me that she probably didn't push her ballot all the way into the voting system in 2000 and probably voted for Pat Buchanan rather than Al Gore. If Pat writes me, I will get her your 'Thank You' note. That goof had haunted her, and she was very concerned about getting this vote right.
Many people were there because they were concerned that their absentee ballot would not matter or be counted. Several people said that they had heard that, unless you could sign your ballot very close to the way that you had signed your registration card, that your vote could be invalidated. Many registered years or decades ago, and said that their signatures have changed with age. True or not, it drove them to the polling place, to stand in line, to participate in the process and make sure that their voices were heard.
There were other practical problems, some of which may have just been at this location. The line to vote was outside of the library. The heat, fortunately, was not bad, but many elderly people stood for hours. A few who found a place to sit on a smattering of concrete benches in front of the library were given tickets to hold their place in the line. A few card chairs were brought out when people complained that they could not stand.
A uniformed guard directed people to a spillover field adjacent to the library, but no one there was directing traffic, so the edges of the field parked up and the center was left empty, with cars circling, giving up, and driving off after people failed to find a place to park.
The ballot itself is huge at 11x17" and intimidating. There are at least a dozen presidential candidates listed on the Florida State ballot. McCain and Obama are joined by Nader and a whole flotilla of names with party intials that are totally unknown to me.
Making a mistake might be easy to do. The wrong pen, or someone who lacks the manual dexterity to make the line right, might have a problem with their vote being counted properly by scanning equipment.
You can request an electronic machine if you are not able to use a pen, or if you speak a language, like Creole or Patois, that is not found on the printed ballot. Still, there were only three such machines at the polling place, which had several people waiting for them.
The same people who can barely drive to the polling place, though, are not likely to admit that they cannot handle the pen properly either. How many lines connected improperly will become dropped votes? How many people who have conditions like macular degeneration will be able to see the "arrows" well enough to connect them properly? The process seems rife for another challenge if the vote is close in Florida, as it often has been.
When finished, I had to slide these huge pieces of paper back into the big sleeve, and then walk them over to a scanner that sits atop a giant bin.
I was told to put the pages in one at a time. To do this requires me to remove the flat-card ballot pages from the big sleeve, and put them in. Doing this, in most cases, exposes the ballot so that it can be easily seen by the polling officials, and by the people next to me as it goes it. So much for the privacy of the ballot. I really wasn't sure what the big sleeve achieved, other than being another awkward accoutrement of this Byzantine ballot.
On departure, the big sleeve was collected, and you were given an "I Voted" sticker.
There were nearly twenty people operating this one polling place, and they were processing fewer than a hundred people to generously one-hundred fifty people in TWO HOURS and fifteen minutes.
Multiply this mess state wide, and there will be a number of people who, after hearing how poorly the system is working for the early voting, may elect to stay home.
One of the big topics of conversation by the departing was why Florida did not just use its much more rapid computerized booths, which were employed during the primary, and just attach a printer to them to print out a paper copy of the ballot to verify the machine, that could be deposited in a much smaller box.
The process, particularly in the printing of the ballots, is painfully slow, manpower-intensive, requires manual dexterity. None of this is a win in a state with an elderly population and a history of error-prone voting.
Voting early would be highly advisable. If they can only process a couple of hundred people an hour at a mega-polling place, I am not sure what will happen when the usual cast of very dedicated elderly volunteers tries to operate this equipment on a massive scale.
One thing is certain: Florida's reputation for voting woes has not been lived down in 2008, and many, many people may be disenfranchised by this bizarre and cumbersome system that seems, by reputation and word-of-mouth, to be designed to discourage turnout.
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Voted in Florida yesterday. A little over 3 hours. Didn't bother me the wait, one woman on line fainted--I think they let her go right in. A funny sign near the door "No one said real change takes under an hour."
Something of MAJOR concern: Was with my grandmother last week as she filled out an absentee ballot. She put a check next to Obama/Biden, then I said "Nana, I think you're supposed to FILL IN the bubble." We looked at form and - yes- said to fill in and stray marks could disqualify ballot. Two things, my grandmother is super-sharp - yet, she automatically checked her choices... this doesn't make her an idiot at all. I called the election office (and Note this insanity: there was NO phone # for election department to call for questions in the entire absentee envelope !! I had to google it!!! I swear!!!) - and could not get through. I left a detailed question if her ballot would be disqualified for "stray" mark of the remaining check-mark (she filled in bubble after we checked directions, yet still a mark was left)... and no one returned my call. My grandmother sent in her ballot. We hope it is counted. I imagine she is not the only one checking instead of filling in... Seems a system needs to be in place to accurately reflect voter's choice w/o punishing voter for instructions that may not be 100% clear... HELPING voters vote...
Voted in S. W. Florida on the 20th. Got to the Library at 8:30 and was amazed to find out that they didn't start unitil 10:00. With the importance of this race widely publicized you would think they would have made it easier on the people, young and old. We have bubble ballots over here which were easy for me to navigate but again there were no poll workers telling us in line that if you have trouble with a pen that there were alternatives. No privacy was afforded at all as you are feeding this huge 2 page ballot into the counter. also no receipts were given for your vote. Theire thinking behind that one was if you dropped it , your info was on it so it would violate your privacy. Imagine that! This disturbed me so much I took a pic with my cell phone which does nothing I guess but make me feel a hair better that I have a copy of my vote.
Nearly all these old geezers from the Sunshine State (aka God's Waiting Room) know how to use a bingo dauber. For those who don't know what that is, it is a big pen with highlighter ink inside that you use to dab big dots on a bingo card as the numbers are called. Just about anyone can use one, no matter how racked with arthritis or God knows what age-related ailment. If we're going to use whole sheets of newsprint as ballots, why not make better use of the space, providing 1"x1" blocks to put one's mark on with the bingo dauber, and put the candidates' names in big, bold print.
Surely a machine can be devised to read such a ballot. Since the ballot itself is so large, it shouldn't be a big problem at all to get error rates down to a low fraction of a percent where it ought to be, even if the ballot were folded a couple of times to protect the voter's privacy. There is no excuse for states, deliberately or not, making the seemingly simple process of voting a big royal pain in the ass. I hope the next administration addresses this issue, in good faith this time, and restores some simplicity to this, the most basic of our duties as citizens of an allegedly free nation.
I moved to Central FL from Palm Beach County, and we've used the optical scanners as long as I've voted here. I've never had a problem with them, and they are MUCH better than the touchscreen ballots, which are not only subject to user error but fraud as well. That happened in PBC in 2004 and the Buchanan-Jennings race in Sarasota in 2006. They scare me a lot more than these optical scanners, if for no other reason than they leave a paper record that can be manually recounted. The county I live in now sends out a sample ballot, so anyone who thinks they might have a problem can review the ballot, ask questions, or request alternative methods to vote. The biggest problem I see is using a new ballot system for the third time in a row and many people won't be familiar with it.
I should mention that my dad was 50 in 2000 and came home on election day and said, "Wow, that ballot was really confusing. I think I may have voted for Pat Buchanan. Oh well, hopefully Gore has Florida anyway..." Then the next day it blew up. People make fun of the old farts in South Florida, but the harried businessmen and women who ran in to vote on their lunch break and didn't have time to pontificate over the butterfly ballot also got screwed.
We desperately need a voter holiday or weekend voting with millions our most moral citizens counting every single ballot and with large audiences there watching. Both touchscreen and scanning machines should be shelved as relics of a horrible past in which millions of votes were not counted to assure victory and power for one party or the other.
I wholeheartedly agree with the election holiday. That's a no-brainer. I'm not sure I agree with the manual count. I've watched some manual vote counts and we might need a holiday week to get those votes counted correctly. It's a slow process, made even slower by human error.
Here in NV where I moved when I left FL this year, we have those arrow ballots for absentee voting, but when I got to the polling place, it was a touch screen with a paper strip attached under plastic so you can't get at it or take it home with you. But you CAN print it, and verify it both on screen and on paper, then hit complete and supposedly your votes are recorded. It was really easy and we had virtually no lines at all tho 9,000 folks voted in my county from Sat--Mon.
Unfortunately, you have no way of knowing whether or not your vote was actually counted regardless of the ease with which you voted and the time that was apparently saved. A careful study of the machine's source code might be helpful in determining if your vote counted, but, try as you might, you'll never get access to it as it has been deemed proprietary. Why doesn't our government use our taxpayer dollars to build its own voting machine infrastructure? This country could easily bring together our brightest minds to do so. This would allow our government to tell these private voting machine companies to take a hike, to get lost because we no longer need your expensive pieces of junk and the chaos and mayhem inspired by them. Such corporations would then go out of business and we'd all be much happier.
Billions of dollars are moved around on computers and we can't vote on them? All publicly traded stocks are companies that conduct shareholder votes online. You could cut down every line by 75% by just providing a computer ballot, and mailing registered voters their account name and code. Tampering with the U.S. Mail is a federal offense, so the likelihood of manipulation of the cards is possible, but low.
Now we're 100% in agreement.
Although this process may have it flaws and discomforts, the elderly community has had the opportunity to vote by mail. These folks knew the lines wd. be line, the process different and wd. be a challenge. Had they requested an absentee, they would have been able to sit in their home and complete the process.
I understand their concerns for having their votes count and am sure they have other reasons but if my memory serves me correct, this is same voting block who were confused by a ballot they they said led them to vote for Buchanon instead of Gore.
I understand the concerns and physical difficulties faced by these individuals but if they are unable to stand in line for an hour or two, draw a straight line does it really seem so safe these folks are driving to the polls?
It is trully unbelievable that once again FL 27 electoral votes might be determined by this group of voters. Hopefully the new voters will be able to compensate for those who walk away or fail to complete the line properly.
Eight years since the 2000 and once again I can hear the excuses. They could have voted by mail and there would be shorter lines and perhaps not another mess. This group of voters need to be voting by mail.
This is very disrespectful of the mind and intellect of elders whose bodies may no longer serve them as well.
Though Oregon has a similar looking ballot, where we connect the two parts of the arrow--and so I am confident after several elections that this system works easily and well--we are ALL vote by mail.
However, it has been clearly seen that absentee ballots in past elections have widely been tossed out by party operatives who are installed in key elections positions. There is every reason for these elders to be concerned about a change in their signatures.
This new system in Florida, every detail other than the paper ballots with the arrows--which are very easy to read by a scanner and even easier to determine intent in the case of a manual recount--almost seems to be set up to make things take as long as possible so as to once again, suppress the vote in poorer, elder, and blacker neighborhoods.
Good luck, Florida!! We are with you!
www.stealbackyourvote.com
It seems to me we need to nationalize our ssytem for voting. Each state should use the same system, one that accounts for the problems of age or infirmity. It sounds to me like we need polling place monitors in Florida!!! Haven't they learned ANYTHING since they were the laughingstock of the country in 2000???
Yes, they've learned quite a bit since 2000. They now possess more sophisticated ways of assuring your vote doesn't actually count so that they can remain in power. Such folks who obtain genuine power from reducing the actual number of votes that can be counted could care less about being the laughingstock of the country.
We use the "connect-the-arrow" optical scan system here in Massachusetts, and I personally think it's the best way to go and don't understand why the whole country doesn't use it.
You prepare the ballot (and anybody who can't connect the arrows is going to need help with ANY other kind of system), you stick it in the machine, and you're done. Once the data is sent off to wherever (Boston?), yes it can be corrupted, but if shenanigans are suspected, there's the original ballot sitting in the box, just waiting for a manual recount. I don't like the thought of internet voting, or electronic voting machines that (MIGHT) spit out a verification slip that is then deposited in a box for a potential manual recount -- just too subject to malfunction on the day of voting, leading to delays or doubts about the integrity of the process.
Personally I am not in favor of mail-in voting. I realize that's how absentee voting is done, and presumably the process has survived scrutiny by the courts, but how is the issue of people being paid for votes, or having to show their employer how they voted, etc., avoided? I think there's a lot to be said for having to vote, by yourself in private, but at a particular location with pollwatchers and officials to make sure there isn't anything illegal happening.
In Oregon we also have the connect the arrow ballots, and I agree they work very well. I did poll monitoring in 2004 and got to watch the whole process by which an Oregon ballot is counted.
First, we DO have a system that is entirely set up for voting by mail, though one is not required to do so. At first, we had many of the same concerns you express, plus the issue of it not "feeling" like you are really part of an election if you just fill it out at home and mail it. But we have seen a HUGE increase in voter turnout because ballots are mailed out to arrive approximately two weeks prior to the election in the voter's home.
Once the ballot is completed, the voter places it in an internal "secrecy" envelope that prevents someone from reading it from the outside, and then in the external mailing envelope. The mailing envelope contains the voter's name and a place for the signature. The signature MUST be on the ballot in order to be counted. (Elections offices have been known to call voters if their ballots arrived without a signature--with plenty of time for them to come down and complete a new ballot).
Ballots may be mailed, dropped off in one of many official, locked drop boxes around town, or brought directly into the Elections Office.
Same with most of Washington state. I came from OR so it was a natural transition. It is very well scrutinized. In 2002 my husband accidently used my security envelope. And even though he signed his name, it had my name printed on it. He had a heck of a time trying to explain to the election official what happened. He had to go down and resubmit a new ballot.
I am sorry but the vote for the President and Vice President should be the same all over the country.
The ballot should list all in English, with their picture beside it, if necessary. Each ballot should be done on a particular type of paper, each state should have a different ink, and each ballot should be numbered with an ID code bar on it. There should be a detachable portion with the ID code bar on it, and each voter should be given that.
Then, the things should be hand counted, with each ballot for a particular candidate going into a special container only for that candidate. Then, during a count or recount, any voter could demand to see their ballot and march up the number and code bar and their vote.
Nothing is too much for the vote not to be conducted easily and with an accurate and true vote.
I like your idea about the ID code--which voters could be set up to see online if they chose, just like many medical insurance systems, DMV's, etc.
I voted yesterday in the Democratic stronghold of Ft. Lauderdale, FL It took me close to 2 1/2 hours. We had basicly the same voting experience as the people in West Delray Beach. Exept instead of drawing an arrowhad next to the canidates. We had to fill in a bubble . It was a little fustrating but I don't care if I had to wait 24 hours to place my vote 4 CHANGE. The fear of 4 more long terrible Bush/McCain policy filled years was all the motivation I needed.
What the H*E*L*L is wrong with Florida?
I live in TN, we have a Dem Gov. and we have never had a problem with our electronic machines. I had my ID checked and went on to vote. I was out in less than 5mins. What's with drawing a line? Older people who have problem with keeping there hands from shaking can't draw a straight line!
I think that we need to federalize or at least set standards for voting machines. Oregon and other states that have no problem with their elections can keep their system.
1) Paper trail.
2) Paper ballots on site in case of machine malfunction.
3) One voting machine/ X number of people, no matter where one lives in the state.
IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?
We have been using those "fill-in-the-arrow" scan-ballots in Minnesota for ages now. They are NOT a big hassle. We have a paper 'sleeve' to put our ballots in to take them out of the booth, to the scanner; that sleeve completely covers up the filled-in ballot. I voted early, last week, at my City Hall here in St. Louis Park - super-easy and totally confidential. (Plus the volunteers were wonderful.)
The main problem I see for Florida is simply that Jeb Bush and his chronies still run the State - so, once the votes go into the computer system - who knows what will come out.The ballots aren't the problem - the Repulsive Repubs are.
Can you prove they counted your vote?
Also, Florida voters, on the ballot, No. 2 Constitutional Amendment, 'Florida Marriage Protection Amendment': is it me, or does the phrase "...and provides that no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or regognized"... sound like some of us are going to get kicked off of our partner's medical insurance?
On January 26, 2008, Governor of Florida Charlie Crist publicly endorsed Senator John McCain in the Republican primary race, saying, "He's a great friend and will do a great job for the United States."
I voted in Miami yesterday and had virtually your same experience, except we had no practice ballot.
3 hours and 10 minutes of thunderstorms alternating with direct sun & steam bath humidity - possibly 100-150 people in line ahead of me wrapping around the outside of the library & being let into the building 3 at a time. I had filled out a sample ballot ahead of time, and the time I was actually doing the ballot was maybe three minutes. The logjam was doing voter verification and printing out the two ballot pages (front & back). Printers malfunctioning right & left.
The whole experience smacked of vote suppression. Why should there be 35 other issues besides Presidential - appearing in English, Spanish, and Haitian with the oval to be filled in below the Haitian translation?
Of 25 voting stations inside, only 7 were occupied with voters. The check-in was the problem. Yep, all elderly, technologically illiterate poll workers. (optical scan voting)
We have 20 early vote locations for approx 5 million people. Open 14 days total, with FOUR differing hours of operation during that time - all designed to be as confusing as possible. Oh, and people endlessly circling for a parking place.
They had to print them??? I live in Iowa where we use a paper ballot, but our ballots are already printed and ready, they just check your name and have you sign for your ballot. Having to print them out there just seems like a planned failure, or at least wilfull inconvenience.
I agree. Just watch as all the printers start mysteriously jamming, running out of ink, refusing to print, blah, blah, blah....
Just another election stolen in Florida.
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