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You are here: Home / Politics / Anticlimactic

Anticlimactic

by Tim F|  November 7, 200611:03 am| 56 Comments

This post is in: Politics

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The clock radio woke me up as usual around half past six. Light traffic being the reward for rising early, I parked my bike at the WQED studios in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood at about seven fifteen and stood in line behind exactly one other person. For the sixth election running the elderly lady complained about my signature but took it anyway and for the sixth time I promised to clean up my handwriting. While I miss the crank-lever dinosaurs that PA once used, the new boxes (Votronic by ESS) at least worked smoothly. However – and this is completely unacceptable going forward – there was no paper trail to verify my vote. We still have a ways to go before we can consider the voting process fixed.

Needless to say voting won’t go smoothly everywhere. I probably won’t have time to document the atrocities so look to Kos and Josh Marshall if you need play-by-play. For example, will Ken Blackwill’s Ohio once again lead the nation in embarrassing electoral screwups? Early signs point to yes.

***Update***

It looks like my positive experience wasn’t even representative of my own county. Eesh. What the hell do we pay Secretaries of State for anyway?

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56Comments

  1. 1.

    Lee

    November 7, 2006 at 11:09 am

    Just an interesting tidbit.

    Coworker voted this morning here in Texas (on a Diebold machine), said about 20% of all of the people voting had to call the election worker over for problems.

    They did not have a problem.

  2. 2.

    Vlad

    November 7, 2006 at 11:09 am

    I, too, miss the dinosaurs. You could shoot one six times with a .45, and it’d still turn out verifiable results. Plus, they had that satisfying KA-THUNK when you cast your vote.

    You live in Squill, Tim?

  3. 3.

    RSA

    November 7, 2006 at 11:14 am

    I voted this morning in NC, in pouring rain, with no more difficulty than dealing with a pen attached to the booth by a string too short to allow me to comfortably mark in the right bubbles. Still–paper, baby! Oh, also, my last name has punctuation and a space in it, so finding me on a computer readout is always something of an adventure, but usually with happy ending.

  4. 4.

    Punchy

    November 7, 2006 at 11:16 am

    For the sixth election running the elderly lady complained about my signature,

    How fucking hard is it to sign “Tim F.”?? I mean, 4 letters and some punctuation? Tell that wrinkly to step off long enough for you to give some props to the Donks.

    I had the old-school scantron, with ENORMOUS ovals, such that even a 4-year old could vote for Boyda (and hopefully will).

  5. 5.

    chopper

    November 7, 2006 at 11:20 am

    just voted in brooklyn. ah, the sound of the lever, i love it.

  6. 6.

    CaseyL

    November 7, 2006 at 11:21 am

    I’m happy to hear I’m not the ony one who misses those old, fully-curtained, dressing room-sized voting booths!

    Each voting lever made a very satisfying click, and the final pull of the main lever – a huge and very Mad Scientist main lever, BTW – would simultaneously tabulate your vote and open the curtain of the booth in a most dramatic and emotionally satisfying way.

    I wonder, sometimes, if our reverence for voting started going downhill when we got rid of those sweet old dinosaurs in favor of the small and spindly boothlets we use now.

  7. 7.

    The Other Steve

    November 7, 2006 at 11:23 am

    I got to the polling location at about 7:20am with my girlfriend. Polls open at 7am.

    We had to wait 30 minutes in line. The ballot coupon I was handed was 166, so there’d been 165 people before me voting.

    That’s Minnesota, we routinely have a 65-70% rate for voting.

    That is largely because we make it easy to register. If you’re not pre-registered, you show your ID showing that you live where you live… if your ID has a bad address, then you simply need a witness to vouch for you. I had to vouch for my girlfriend.

    It was her first time voting as a new US Citizen.

  8. 8.

    GOP Noise Machine

    November 7, 2006 at 11:23 am

    GOP talking points: Beware Of Voter Fraud
    Will dead people vote today in Missouri?

    http://gop.com/News/Read.aspx?ID=6715

    Democrats have a history of making up fake stories about voter suppression. Don’t believe such stories.

    ACORN is trying to steal the election in Missouri.
    If the Democrats seem to be winning in Missouri, don’t believe it.

  9. 9.

    The Other Steve

    November 7, 2006 at 11:25 am

    We use paper in my state. We fill in the ovals with a pen.

    It’s so much more satisfying to know that not only does my vote count, but if there is a recount, they can take a second looksee.

  10. 10.

    Ryan S.

    November 7, 2006 at 11:28 am

    I had the old-school scantron, with ENORMOUS ovals, such that even a 4-year old could vote for Boyda (and hopefully will).

    You too, I’m glad we don’t have those e-voting machines. My only problem was the insane fog we had this morning. Oh, and Go Boyda.

    BJ Kansas exit poll:
    Boyda – 2
    Ryun – 0
    anyone else from here?

  11. 11.

    Ben

    November 7, 2006 at 11:30 am

    I had a decent time with the Diebold machines. No paper trail, but otherwise went smoothly. Felt good voting against Santorum didn’t it Tim? :-)

  12. 12.

    Anonymous Jim

    November 7, 2006 at 11:33 am

    You better hope that “elderly lady” doesn’t rea this blog or she is going to be pissed next time when you don’t clean up your signature.

  13. 13.

    The Asshole Formerly Known as GOP4Me

    November 7, 2006 at 11:39 am

    It felt nice to vote for Senator Socialist up here in Burlington. Of course, I did it by absentee, so no satisfying noise anymore. Haven’t heard that since the last time I voted in Camden, New Jersey, in 2004.

    Am I the only one worrying about the rain depressing turnout in key states?

  14. 14.

    RSA

    November 7, 2006 at 11:42 am

    It felt nice to vote for Senator Socialist up here in Burlington.

    AH, you’re in one of my favorite towns in the North East. Lovely place, whenever I’ve had the chance to visit.

  15. 15.

    Baby Jane

    November 7, 2006 at 11:48 am

    In my corner of Connecticut we still use the curtain crankers.

    The tactile experience, the clicking of levers, the sound of the mechanism as you crank out your vote while simultaneously opening the curtains to a new world of possibilities. I can’t imagine voting any other way.

  16. 16.

    grumpy realist

    November 7, 2006 at 11:51 am

    Chicago, Oak Park: cloudy and foggy, but no rain. Not many people at the booth–I think I was No. 265. Paper ballots with lines to draw between heads and tails of arrows, then ballot is optically scanned. When I was there they were trying to get the other machine booted up and running, but since there wasn’t much of a a line, I doubt this would be a problem at present. They had more problems running around trying to find pens to fill out the ballots.

  17. 17.

    trifecta

    November 7, 2006 at 11:51 am

    I am shocked Drudge doesn’t have a Democratic voter somewhere voting fraudulently, which of course counters the criminal vote supression done by the GOP.

    These folks are actually getting deranged. They are bearing false witness left and right in their search for suppressing votes. I think Jesus said, you can scratch that commandment if the polls are within 5 points. Or something like that.

    How desperate they are to cling to power. The slimy tactics is actually the case they are making against themselves of being corrupted by power. They could run a strict platform of low taxes, no gays, no abortions, ra ra war but it isn’t selling, so instead of accepting defeat, we have un christian slime coming from “the christians”.

  18. 18.

    The Asshole Formerly Known as GOP4Me

    November 7, 2006 at 11:54 am

    AH, you’re in one of my favorite towns in the North East. Lovely place, whenever I’ve had the chance to visit.

    It is, but it depends on the season. Spending March/April up here is kind of a waste of a decent springtime, what with the monsoon rains and whatnot.

    How desperate they are to cling to power. The slimy tactics is actually the case they are making against themselves of being corrupted by power. They could run a strict platform of low taxes, no gays, no abortions, ra ra war but it isn’t selling, so instead of accepting defeat, we have un christian slime coming from “the christians”.

    Oh shit, I forgot about the War on Christmas the Democrats are waging! Is it too late to go back and change my vote?

  19. 19.

    Zifnab

    November 7, 2006 at 12:03 pm

    Oh shit, I forgot about the War on Christmas the Democrats are waging! Is it too late to go back and change my vote?

    Not if you live in Texas. I’m gonna run right down to my Sugar Land precint and vote, like 8 more times for Shelley-Sekula Gibbs.

  20. 20.

    Nick

    November 7, 2006 at 12:04 pm

    Nothing major to report down here in Louisiana. Well, except for it being *way* too early in the morning for me and I signed in the wrong box when registering. Ah well, a minor and fixable SNAFU on my part, according to the workers there. At least it was a rather nice, clear, and cool morning.

    I, too, miss those old style booths. I forgot to note the booths we had, unfortunately.

  21. 21.

    The Other Steve

    November 7, 2006 at 12:06 pm

    Oh shit, I forgot about the War on Christmas the Democrats are waging! Is it too late to go back and change my vote?

    Borat beat out Santy Claus in the weekend box office! Greater proof of a giant conspiracy against Christmas, I am not aware of.

  22. 22.

    The Asshole Formerly Known as GOP4Me

    November 7, 2006 at 12:12 pm

    Not if you live in Texas. I’m gonna run right down to my Sugar Land precint and vote, like 8 more times for Shelley-Sekula Gibbs.

    That was what Camden was like, too. Allegedly, anyway. For all I know, someone’s still voting down there in my name. I probably voted for Menendez 200 times or something, all without actually setting foot in the state.

    Borat beat out Santy Claus in the weekend box office! Greater proof of a giant conspiracy against Christmas, I am not aware of.

    Is Borat Muslim? That would explain a lot. If he is, can we send him to Gitmo? (I think he’s also connected in some way with that guy who says “Booyakasha!” on HBO. That guy’s a covert Islamist if ever there was one.)

  23. 23.

    Punchy

    November 7, 2006 at 12:13 pm

    Wow, I knew the Republicans would stoop to new lows in their effort to affect the vote, but this is a first.

    In short, some GOP pol in Cali used the Emergency Broadcast System to force stations to run his radio commercial.

    In an apparent violation of FCC rules, conservative talk radio station KFBK 1530 AM in Sacramento transmitted a paid political advertisement to an unknown number of other stations in the area, using the Federal Emergency Alert System (EAS), thus automatically forcing the ad onto the stations’ airwaves.

    Lordy.

  24. 24.

    jcricket

    November 7, 2006 at 12:14 pm

    Voted by mail about a week ago (King County, Washington State). Had my voter pamphlet and some cheat sheets from the various local papers just for reference.

    Everyone should vote by mail, everywhere.

    1) It’s paper-based and human readable by nature, and thus independently verifiable and auditable
    2) No standing in long lines, rain or otherwise. No delays because of machine failures
    3) You can have educational materials in front of you
    4) No poorly trained poll workers. Moreover, no poll workers to train, period.
    5) Single system means no confusion about what standards apply to what type of voting.
    6) No voter intimidation at the polls (at least not in person).
    7) Distributed nature of mailing in ballots makes it harder to get rid of votes (plus tampering with the mail is already a federal crime).
    8) Increases voter turnout (at least in WA and Oregon it has).

    Optimize that basic system with the following:

    A) Computer-assisted-voting (to give voters the ability to print “perfect” ballots and avoid the optical scan spoilage problems caused by human error)

    B) Basic election reforms (early primaries, no spurious voter registration challenges, better statewide coordination on voter roll maintenance)

    And our election systems would be pretty damn bullet-proof.

    Then we could focus on the other election problems (gerrymandering, illegal robocalls, fake mailings, voter suppression tactics, the protection of incumbency, big money issues, etc.)

  25. 25.

    jcricket

    November 7, 2006 at 12:16 pm

    Oh, and add in some kind of system where you get an “receipt# ” with your ballot that you can use to check when the ballot was received and processed, and make sure your votes were counted accurately (some kind of check-sum that is an aggregation of your votes would make it really perfect).

  26. 26.

    Zifnab

    November 7, 2006 at 12:16 pm

    Is Borat Muslim?

    The actor is actually Jewish. Which is why his anti-Semetism is so funny to watch.

  27. 27.

    The Asshole Formerly Known as GOP4Me

    November 7, 2006 at 12:19 pm

    The actor is actually Jewish. Which is why his anti-Semetism is so funny to watch.

    Yes, but the character is Muslim, which is why we’ll be sending him to Gitmo.

  28. 28.

    Zifnab

    November 7, 2006 at 12:19 pm

    7) Distributed nature of mailing in ballots makes it harder to get rid of votes (plus tampering with the mail is already a federal crime).

    You say that now. But nationalize it and it’ll just be a matter of time until you’ve got GOP operatives in every post office from California to Maine and an Arabian Horse Auctioner as Postmaster General.

    Mail-in is only “corruption-free” because it’s not wide enough to start corrupting yet.

  29. 29.

    demimondian

    November 7, 2006 at 12:22 pm

    jcricket — you’re describing a standard electronic machine, you know…

    Voting in Redmond was easy this AM — walked into the Jr. High School, no line, no enough pens (as usual), filled in my circles, left. You Seattlites *aren’t* going to give in to the Sonics, are you? Please, say no? Pretty please?

  30. 30.

    jcricket

    November 7, 2006 at 12:25 pm

    jcricket—you’re describing a standard electronic machine, you know…

    How so? I’m describing a way to use computers to print optical scan ballots from home that aren’t stored on any central server.

    Even if electronic voting machines did this same thing at polling places, there’d still be all the other polling place issues (and we’ve seen them even in WA state).

    What you experienced seems to be the “best possible” polling place experience, but not one that’s guaranteed, especially in poor or urban areas.

  31. 31.

    Baby Jane

    November 7, 2006 at 12:29 pm

    Mail-in is only “corruption-free” because it’s not wide enough to start corrupting yet.

    Mail-in ballots will be sent to God’s Octopus Garden.

  32. 32.

    Davebo

    November 7, 2006 at 12:31 pm

    Not if you live in Texas. I’m gonna run right down to my Sugar Land precint and vote,

    Well if everyone in Sugarland decides to celebrate their vote with a beer will the one lonely bar there be able to handle the traffic?

  33. 33.

    Tsulagi

    November 7, 2006 at 12:34 pm

    In short, some GOP pol in Cali used the Emergency Broadcast System to force stations to run his radio commercial.

    LOL That is despicable. But it is funny too. “Vote for …..this concludes the test of the emergency broadcasting system.” Have to give props at least for ingenuity and balls for that one.

  34. 34.

    Zifnab

    November 7, 2006 at 12:38 pm

    Well if everyone in Sugarland decides to celebrate their vote with a beer will the one lonely bar there be able to handle the traffic?

    It can’t handle birthday party traffic. My town sucks.

  35. 35.

    jcricket

    November 7, 2006 at 12:43 pm

    Mail-in is only “corruption-free” because it’s not wide enough to start corrupting yet.

    I certainly know there could be outright dirty tricks if everyone switches to mail-in voting, but we haven’t seen that in WA or Oregon. Sure, soon enough I’ll see black vans all over the place picking up the mail :-)

    I’m not saying we don’t need to be vigilant, of course. But again, since it’s a single system that everyone uses, and right now the post office isn’t particularly corrupt. There’d be a lot of attention paid. You could just pay the observers to watch the post offices, and with the checksum/receipt system I mentioned, that should be good for spot checking that what you sent was what was processed.

    Also, people will drop off their ballots all over the place you’ll have to do a whole lot of corrupting (mail carriers, post offices, drop off boxes, etc.). Might end up being pretty obvious.

  36. 36.

    The Other Steve

    November 7, 2006 at 12:44 pm

    You say that now. But nationalize it and it’ll just be a matter of time until you’ve got GOP operatives in every post office from California to Maine and an Arabian Horse Auctioner as Postmaster General.

    Mail-in is only “corruption-free” because it’s not wide enough to start corrupting yet.

    Absentee ballots are where most of the fraud occurs in our election system. It allows the partisans to fill out the ballot for someone else, without having any of that nasty oversight you’d get in a polling place.

    Look into Florida for examples… there’s been a couple of races there where the absentees voting were from graveyards, etc.

  37. 37.

    ThymeZone

    November 7, 2006 at 12:50 pm

    In just about the geographical center of the Phoenix Metro Area, I voted in the gymnasium behind an old Seventh Day Adventist church, about a mile from the house I grew up in.

    Paper ballot, fill in the space with a felt pen, mini boothlets. Extremely quiet and efficient process even though the polling place was busy and there is a new ID requirement in place this year.

    Voted for every Dem, and against English as Official Language and Denial of Services to Illegal Aliens. Voted against DOMA.

    Record heat wave here today, may hit above 90 and may break a record set in 1906. Good for turnout, I hope.

  38. 38.

    Sherard

    November 7, 2006 at 12:55 pm

    Ah, too funny. If the DailyKOS says it, then it MUST be true! I can’t decide if you all are more predictable or pathetic.

    Is Robocalling going to be the excuse if the Dems lose again in this election ? ? You have to admit, the excuses are getting weaker and weaker.

    “Golly, we would have won in ’06 if not for the robocalling!”

  39. 39.

    ThymeZone

    November 7, 2006 at 12:59 pm

    You have to admit, the excuses are getting weaker and weaker.

    It is duly noted that you represent the party that stands for really good excuses.

  40. 40.

    mds

    November 7, 2006 at 1:02 pm

    Voted before work this morning in the lobby of the local high school. It’s still the mechanical lever-and-curtain machines for us. Yeah, they can be tampered with, too, but it really is so satisfying to pull the big lever over. But I’d get used to marking an X on a hand-counted ballot, too. Or hitting the touchscreen repeatedly for the Democratic candidate, and watching the system select the Republican. No, wait, scratch that last one.

    Oh, and the Parent-Teacher Organization had a table with baked goods and drinks set up in the lobby, too. Now that’s a good idea. And there was a fair-sized Democratic tent outside at the edge of the parking lot, urging straight-ticket voting. Gratifying to see, especially when contrasted with the surly “Vote Joe” sign-toters across the driveway from them. Wait, was that too much of a clue?

  41. 41.

    Zifnab

    November 7, 2006 at 1:14 pm

    Also, people will drop off their ballots all over the place you’ll have to do a whole lot of corrupting (mail carriers, post offices, drop off boxes, etc.). Might end up being pretty obvious.

    The Republicans aren’t flinching about being obvious now. I doubt they’ll flinch in the future.

  42. 42.

    Tim F.

    November 7, 2006 at 1:17 pm

    I wonder whether sherard gets this angry about everything. If so I pity his garden slugs.

  43. 43.

    Tax Analyst

    November 7, 2006 at 1:36 pm

    California, Los Angeles area…voted before the weekend with absentee ballot. I leave for work before the polls open and I’m getting together with a colleague from a prior job after work so I knew I’d better do the absentee thing. Weather was bright, sunny and clear this morning…heading towards being a bit on the warm side. I hadn’t heard about the misuse of the EBS system, but that’s probably because this is my first “non-business” excursion onto the ‘Net today. But I’m not surprised that some GOP joker would try crap like that.

  44. 44.

    The Asshole Formerly Known as GOP4Me

    November 7, 2006 at 1:41 pm

    I wonder whether sherard gets this angry about everything. If so I pity his garden slugs

    The trick is putting out bowls of beer at night. The slugs crawl right into them, and drown themselves.

    If you really hate the slugs, use a shitty beer like Milwaukee’s Beast.

  45. 45.

    Krista

    November 7, 2006 at 1:42 pm

    I wonder whether sherard gets this angry about everything. If so I pity his garden slugs.

    Garden slugs deserve nothing but righteous anger — miserable bastards ate all my pansies.

    I’m crossing my fingers for you guys. I’m hoping that if the Dems get in, then maybe my government will start adjusting their sails accordingly and will stop using neocon tactics and rhetoric.

  46. 46.

    BlogReeder

    November 7, 2006 at 1:51 pm

    Needless to say voting won’t go smoothly everywhere. I probably won’t have time to document the atrocities so look to Kos and Josh Marshall if you need play-by-play.

    Expecting the Democrats to lose? Screw ups won’t matter if the Dems win. They won’t matter at all.

  47. 47.

    The Asshole Formerly Known as GOP4Me

    November 7, 2006 at 1:52 pm

    Garden slugs deserve nothing but righteous anger—miserable bastards ate all my pansies.

    The beer trick really works. My Dad taught me that one years ago. You’ve just got to make sure the bowl’s in a slight depression, so the slugs can crawl into it.

  48. 48.

    Tom in Texas

    November 7, 2006 at 1:54 pm

    Not if you live in Texas. I’m gonna run right down to my Sugar Land precint and vote, like 8 more times for Shelley-Sekula Gibbs.

    Gibbs’ campaign slogan may be Vote Twice for Shelly, but I think voting for the same person 8 times is probably illegal.

  49. 49.

    Tom in Texas

    November 7, 2006 at 2:04 pm

    It can’t handle birthday party traffic. My town sucks.

    Sugar Land Town Square cracks me up. That mutated small town feel with a Talbot’s, surrounded by monstrous parking garages.

  50. 50.

    Tim F.

    November 7, 2006 at 2:04 pm

    Screw ups won’t matter if the Dems win. They won’t matter at all.

    I wonder whether you know that the insane often project their own insanity on everybody around them. It even happens with people who are not technically insane. For example, rational people with a sunny mindset often assume that everybody else has more or less the same perspective. Or, say, people who have their partisan blinkers fixed on so tight that they cannot imagine living without them.

  51. 51.

    Pooh

    November 7, 2006 at 2:32 pm

    Good times in Ohio:

    At 10:15 a.m., I was the first person to vote electronically at my precinct in Cleveland Heights. Having arrived at 6:30 when the polls opened, we were immediately told by poll workers that none of the five cards voters use to vote electronically were functional. In fact, I’m fairly certain that the majority of the cards came up as dead on arrival. If you’re unfamiliar with how the process works here, when voters sign in, they’re handed a card that looks much like a hotel key card. Then, they go to the machine, cast their ballot and bring the card back to the poll worker, who takes it and prepares it for the next voter.

    Well, none of the cards or miniature readers worked. From 6:30 a.m. on, poll workers in contact with the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections were told that they were, in fact, aware of the problem and that, to be sure, help was on the way. Between five and ten minutes away. They were repeatedly given the five-to-ten-minute story for three hours. Help never came. Apparently, similar problems had happened at other area precincts. At one point, a poll worker was told that the problems were so widespread in Cleveland that dispatching support staff to a single precinct would be next to impossible.

    Why didn’t I stick to my guns and look at nothing until this was all over?

  52. 52.

    Perry Como

    November 7, 2006 at 3:35 pm

    Why didn’t I stick to my guns and look at nothing until this was all over?

    Yeah, I’m getting a sinking feeling here. The problems being reported are very widespread.

  53. 53.

    Punchy

    November 7, 2006 at 3:44 pm

    The beer trick really works.

    Hey, tell me when you’re about to leave a bunch of free beer in your backyard, all for the drinking.

    Signed,
    “The Slugs”

  54. 54.

    jcricket

    November 7, 2006 at 4:53 pm

    Garden slugs deserve nothing but righteous anger—miserable bastards ate all my pansies.

    C’mon, you can’t blame the Republicans for everything!

    Wait, are they the slugs or the pansies? With Haggard and Foley and Crist I can’t tell anymore.

    (sorry, had to do it).

  55. 55.

    Mark

    November 7, 2006 at 5:46 pm

    Apparently, in states like Florida and Ohio, they’re paid to run statewide Republican presidential election campaigns.

  56. 56.

    The Asshole Formerly Known as GOP4Me

    November 7, 2006 at 7:44 pm

    Hey, tell me when you’re about to leave a bunch of free beer in your backyard, all for the drinking

    .

    Apparently, you also have to put a couple cigarette butts in the bowl, to discourage human scavengers.

    Live and learn.

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