so I went to training on our new voting machines here in Tarrant Co

[yellowdogintexas]

These machines are wonderful!!!

After voter goes through check in and registration confirmation, we hand them a blank ballot and queue up an access code to the voting machine. The voter logs in to the machine, the right ballot for his/her precinct pops up and the voter uses the touch screen to make selections. Voter can review selections as much as needed.

Now comes the fun part: that blank piece of paper goes in to the machine and the ballot is printed right there! Voter can still review the printed copy to make sure everything is the way the voter wants it; if it's all OK voter takes the ballot to the scanner and it is then counted. If the voter sees an error, the ballot can be returned to the judge, and a new ballot and access code given to the voter. The ELection Judge will spoil the ballot and handle it according to procedure.

We have two awesome things going on here at the same time:
1. complete paper trail of every ballot whether Early Voting or Election Day
2. Election Day judges will no longer have to send a voter to the correct precinct - any voter can vote at any open location on Election Day, as we already do during Early Voting.

One of the hardest things about being an ELection Judge at the end of the day is sending folks to their home precinct knowing full well they don't have time to get there.

Those Days Are Gone!!!! Our new check in system tells us exactly where that voter is supposed to go according to their registration address and lets us know to give them a change of address form if needed. Meanwhile because we now have Voting Centers, we can pull up the right ballot and let them vote!

We will have a great deal less tedious paperwork at the end of the day, and we won't be sending 8 or 900 printed (now useless) ballots back to Election Central for recycling. Those lovely blank forms will simply go to storage to be used in the next election. We are going to save a ton of $$ on paper and printing alone with this new system. Plus we will do away with the vast majority of the dreaded Provisional Ballot!!!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. We have the equivalent here in Santa Fe.

You can vote anywhere in the county, both during early voting and Election Day voting. You give your name and birth date to the person checking you in and it prints up the correct ballot. Fill it out at a booth, then it gets scanned and will be handed back if you've double voted.

Nice.

It should be like this (either your system or mine) everywhere.

Oh, and early voting should likewise be everywhere. Also same day registration.

[yellowdogintexas]

11. Surprisingly, Texas has one of the best Early Voting

systems: 10 full days which include a weekend. Polls open all day on Saturday and from 11 am to 5 on Sundays. There is a great tradition of heading to vote after church in many of our precincts .

[Mersky]

2. I saw a demo of the same machines in Williamson Co

And we’ll have them in Travis Co.

All the features you mentioned are a major improvement over the paperless machines.

Too, I’m excited that poll workers won’t have to/be able to handle cartridges between different voters.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. That beats our system where you have to be in the right precinct. although...

the right precinct is rarely more than 15 minutes away away.

And we still make it a pain to do absentee ballots. Early voting? Don't make me laugh hysterically.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. Having to be in the right precinct is yet another way to reduce voting.

Actually, I think that you should be able to vote anywhere in your state, be given the correct ballot, and just vote. Although at the county level, as we have in NM, is not bad. Our counties are pretty large to begin with.

I honestly wonder how other countries handle all this stuff. As in, how do they do registration? Do you need to show up at the one and only voting place that will know you're registered? And so on.

[yellowdogintexas]

12. We have a great vote by mail too.

Over 65; disabled; out of county voters can request vote by mail ballots in January. Once the form is returned, the ballots will be sent for each election that year to every voter who returned the request. My neighbor calls it "kitchen table voting"

The state Democratic party sends ballot requests automatically to known Democratic voters (those who vote in Democratic primaries.) Use of this ballot does away with the problems for voters who do not have photo ID also

[yellowdogintexas]

13. Some of our precincts are far enough apart that getting

to the right one can take 45 minutes at certain times of day. We're doing away with I'll be late for work and I'll never make it voting.

[CentralMass]

4. If the display says "Spasibo za vash golos" after you vote you might want to worry.

[tiptonic]

7. we

We're already in trouble. Just hope the Russians don't own the voting machine companies.

[hedda_foil]

6. One question: Does the voted ballot get printed with a bar code on it?

[questionseverything]

8. that would be my question too,,,,,is the name printed or some secret code?

and if the name is printed why don't we just count the paper?

[hedda_foil]

10. It's not either/or, but both. The votes are printed out but the bar code gets counted.

[yellowdogintexas]

15. counting the paper in many locations would take forever!

The names are printed, just as a list which shows your votes. Not a full ballot style. The barcode is the code for the scanner, and it is added when the ballot is printed

[questionseverything]

18. so it is just another "trust me system"

at least the federal races should be hand counted, publicly and transparently

since electronic counting has been introduced we as a country supposedly go more to the right time after time...the "red shift" even tho everything we see and hear says the country is more and more liberal


l

[yellowdogintexas]

14. yes. It looks more like the square things that

you see on coupons rather than a string of numbers. You can't take a picture of it though; no phones allowed

[hedda_foil]

16. It's he issue is that it's the barcodes that are counted and there's no way to tell if they're right

A hand audit of the names on the paper could clear this up but for now it's another black box.

[yellowdogintexas]

17. Since the choices are printed an audit would be feasible

if the election were challenged

[questionseverything]

19. except by the time it is challenged, the chain of custody is broken

we need to hand count the ballots openly and transparently ,election night and then make sure the correct totals are what is reported at the state/county level


nothing else is a true check and balance

[IndyOp]

9. Wow! Biggest complaint from our town administrators

about getting paper ballots was the waste - by law having to print twice as many ballots for each precinct as expected by past turnout at each. Terrible waste of money - but necessary - but still...

If the machine prints them as needed