What kind of machine did you vote on?

**Pam** · 11-02-2004, 05:10 PM

I had the usual lever-type machine but a co-worker who lives about a half hour away voted with a computerized keypad machine as did my daughter in Maryland. I felt like I was living in the Dark Ages with my lever machine until I realized there are people still fooling around with chads, etc.

**cali** · 11-02-2004, 05:27 PM

lol I have never heard of computerized voting machines, around here, I dont know about other places in canada but we still use paper ballots as id a sheet of paper you put a chmark beside who you want to vote for, fold it and drop it into a padlocked box lol and the voting booths are cardboard and set up to divide tables. I know all this only because my mom works at the polls every year

**K9soul** · 11-02-2004, 05:28 PM

Paper ballot here

**Freckles** · 11-02-2004, 05:32 PM

Paper ballot, but we use a pen to blacken the small oval next to the person or measure we are voting on. Oregon is entirely vote by mail, so we have two weeks to return our ballots. At the time 71% of us have!

**aly** · 11-02-2004, 05:40 PM

I had the lever machine thingamabob

**RICHARD** · 11-02-2004, 05:45 PM

INK A DOT!!!!

A really neat new voting machine.

Like the old 'chad' style- you slide the ballot in- but instead of the old stylus, you 'punch' the new stylus next to the canidate/issue you are voting for and it marks the ballot with ink.

Think of a Magic Marker without the nib....It marked each box with a nice black circle...

Very impressive!!!

I liked it!

**anna_66** · 11-02-2004, 05:45 PM

Originally posted by Freckles
Paper ballot, but we use a pen to blacken the small oval next to the person or measure we are voting on.

Same here.

**Tubby & Peanut's Mom** · 11-02-2004, 05:46 PM

Originally posted by Freckles
Paper ballot, but we use a pen to blacken the small oval next to the person or measure we are voting on. Oregon is entirely vote by mail, so we have two weeks to return our ballots. At the time 71% of us have!

Wow, that's different! I've never heard of a state where everyone votes by mail.

My mom lives in a small town near Green Bay, WI where they still use a pen to blacken out the oval. She is a poll worker and she says they sit there and manually count the ovals. Yes, that's right, no machine involved what-so-ever! I'm not sure of the exact procedure, but it's something like they count the total number of ballots and then they count the votes for each condidate. The numbers have to match exactly or they have to count all over again! Talk about the dark ages! By the end of the day they are all usually pretty tired and missed countings are not unusual, so sometimes they sit there for quite awhile before everything is correct and can be submitted. I didn't ask her if they send the votes in on the back of a donkey though.

Here in one of the biggest citites in the country - I vote on a paper punch out card, which yes - can have the dreaded chads!

They do have a machine they put the ballot in when you're done. It doesn't read the votes or anything, just makes sure that everything is punched correctly. So, say for instance I voted for Bush and Kerry, it would tell the poll worker that there is an error and I needed a new card to vote again. I'm assuming they do this to try and eliminate some of the "hangings" and "pregnants."

Oops, I goofed, I don't vote in one of the biggest cities in the country - just one of its suburbs, but still, you think we'd get with the times already, but I guess that takes money which Cook County doesn't have a whole lot of right now.

**Uabassoon** · 11-02-2004, 06:14 PM

Originally posted by Freckles
[B]Paper ballot, but we use a pen to blacken the small oval next to the person or measure we are voting on. /B]

That's how I voted. I always vote early though so I'm not sure how they actually vote on election day .

**lizzielou742** · 11-02-2004, 06:20 PM

Optical scan here. It's a paper ballot scanned by a machine. Think "Scantron."

**Logan** · 11-02-2004, 06:28 PM

Pam, we had our first "all computer" election in Greenville County today. We had always had punch cards in the past. It was easy, but no easier than punching those cards before.