I recently did volunteer work at a polling station, giving . . . um . . . "technical assitance" to people who couldn't figure out how to fill out a ballot for the machine reader. I can tell you from personal experience that no matter how fool-proof they make the gizmos, there's an infinite amount of human stupidy to foul it up.
"Your machine is broken." *panic* "Why do you say that?" "It wouldn't take my vote!" *looks at ballot* "Um, did you really want to vote for three people for the same Congressional seat?" "Yes."
Actually, the stories get so much worse that they're quite scary. I am now convinced that the likelihood that a person will get off their duff and vote is inversely proportional to your desire to have them in any way responsible for picking your political leader. But, maybe, I'm just being cynical and it's just that all the smart folks sent in an absentee ballot. But I doubt it.
"No sir, I'm sorry but you can't mark both columns on the ballot. I'll go with you through registration again and get you a fresh ballot so that you can just mark the one column." *gets hims a new ballot, seals voided ballot in special envelope, makes note in log* "Um, hello again sir. You marked both columns again. Since this ballot is for a primary you can only vote for the people you want to represent one political party. This means that you need to mark just one column." *gets hims another new ballot, seals voided ballot in another special envelope, makes another note in log* "Hi again. Tell you what, this gentleman here will go with you into the voting booth and show you who you can vote for. Yes I know you like those two candidates, but they're in different politcal parties so you can only pick one for the primary." *gets hims another new ballot, seals voided ballot in another special envelope, makes another note in log* "Hey. You're kidding. What do you mean he filled out his name wrong on the third one?" *gets hims another new ballot, seals voided ballot in another special envelope, makes another note in log*
My experience volunteering at a voting venue was just like that. All . . . day . . . long. And yes, we had people who had the primary duty of going into a voting booth and helping somebody completely clueless figure out how to shade in the dots. Using very small words. In fact, I was told that I was a poor choice for dealing with the voters because my English was too good.
I was just doing a quiz on my journal's gender, and there was a poll about penguins, while reading the responses that were given I stumbled across you, and as I am always intrigued by other people with 'az' in their names, I thought I'd check you out...you seem neat and I felt it necessary to share that with you. It was possibly going to be followed by a "mind if I add you" but then I noticed how many friends you have, and thought I'd just leave it at telling you that you seem keen :)
Go ahead and add me if you'd like; I'm not picky about who adds me in any case unless they're creepy and weird in the wrong way, but you seem like not-creepy in any case, and likely interesting too!
Based on your interests... have you met glamourbombs? You might dig it.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
azurelunatic) wrote2003-09-20 11:46 pm
no subject
"Your machine is broken."
*panic* "Why do you say that?"
"It wouldn't take my vote!"
*looks at ballot*
"Um, did you really want to vote for three people for the same Congressional seat?"
"Yes."
no subject
no subject
Actually, the stories get so much worse that they're quite scary. I am now convinced that the likelihood that a person will get off their duff and vote is inversely proportional to your desire to have them in any way responsible for picking your political leader. But, maybe, I'm just being cynical and it's just that all the smart folks sent in an absentee ballot. But I doubt it.
"No sir, I'm sorry but you can't mark both columns on the ballot. I'll go with you through registration again and get you a fresh ballot so that you can just mark the one column."
*gets hims a new ballot, seals voided ballot in special envelope, makes note in log*
"Um, hello again sir. You marked both columns again. Since this ballot is for a primary you can only vote for the people you want to represent one political party. This means that you need to mark just one column."
*gets hims another new ballot, seals voided ballot in another special envelope, makes another note in log*
"Hi again. Tell you what, this gentleman here will go with you into the voting booth and show you who you can vote for. Yes I know you like those two candidates, but they're in different politcal parties so you can only pick one for the primary."
*gets hims another new ballot, seals voided ballot in another special envelope, makes another note in log*
"Hey. You're kidding. What do you mean he filled out his name wrong on the third one?"
*gets hims another new ballot, seals voided ballot in another special envelope, makes another note in log*
My experience volunteering at a voting venue was just like that.
All . . . day . . . long.
And yes, we had people who had the primary duty of going into a voting booth and helping somebody completely clueless figure out how to shade in the dots. Using very small words. In fact, I was told that I was a poor choice for dealing with the voters because my English was too good.
no subject
randomness
Re: randomness
Heh. :)
It's rather late, so I'm a little silly.
Go ahead and add me if you'd like; I'm not picky about who adds me in any case unless they're creepy and weird in the wrong way, but you seem like not-creepy in any case, and likely interesting too!
Based on your interests... have you met
Re: randomness
thanks...I think I need more fun people in the lj world
Re: randomness
Re: randomness
no subject
Not sure if its the ATM line or the voting line.
no subject
*does the "glad the Dave's an honest programmer" dance*