[snip]THE PROBLEM was that my touch-screen voting machine inaccurately put a green check mark in the McCain/Palin box when I touched my guy's name. I followed the instructions and touched the incorrect check mark to "de-select" it and then used my pinky instead of my index finger to select Obama/Biden. That wasn't the end of my frustration, though.
Three times the touch screen mistakenly assigned my preference to the wrong candidate. Now I'm a technologically savvy individual, so it didn't fluster me too much, having read the directions, knowing that I could immediately "un-check" one and select the other, and further knowing that there would be a screen at the end with a summary of my selections, and an opportunity to "Return to the Ballot," before actually casting the "VOTE." Not all voters are as tech savvy as me--in fact few of them are. There was an alert tone that sounded when I touched Obama/Biden, and a bright green check mark appeared in the box (the wrong one, of course, but I could have missed it), and the paper tape that keeps record was printed on and moved. I would imagine that MANY people would move on at that point...I mean, it sounded and "looked" like the right thing happened.
Let's not have any tragic accidents, shall we? Slow down, take your time, and verify. Otherwise, we might end up with Grampa McCrabbypants and Sarah Failin' in charge of our destinies - a fate too horrible to contemplate without copious quantities of alcohol and psychotropic drugs.
Yeah. I voted (again) this past Saturday (state by-election). Pencil on paper ballots, as always in Australia. Those suckers register what you try to write. Yes, it's slower and more expensive to count. I'd rather my vote was driven by getting counted than by the media news-cycle.
ReplyDelete(Hi, yes, still alive. Just got asked to take on some undergrad teaching at the university for a few weeks, so even busier than the last few hectic months for a while ...)