Reply #13: Speak Up If Something Goes Wrong in the Voting Booth [View All]

[livvy]

Speak up if something goes wrong in the voting booth
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Fri, 02/22/2008 - 3:26pm. Be-Elected


A lot of people have crazy stories when voting. Hard to imagine topping this one, though. -- Chad

You may have missed this story in the hype of voting on Super Tuesday. Given where we are, we couldn't avoid it.

On Super Tuesday, 20 voters in Chicago were given what looked like pens to use on paper ballots. When the voters complained that their responses couldn't be seen and were not recorded, election judges told them it was okay since the "pens" had invisible ink.

They weren't pens; they were plastic styluses meant for touchscreens.

Ben Joravsky of the Chicago Reader is one of the best reporters in this city, known for corruption, in exposing injustice. And even he couldn't find exactly why judges so grossly misinformed the constituents.

Here are a couple of excerpts from his piece:


An election judge gave her a ballot and a pen, but when (Angela) Burkhardt tried to use it the pen made no mark. When she asked him for another, he told her she didn't need one. And then he uttered the words that will live on in infamy. As Burkhardt recalls it: "He said, 'It's a magic pen' -- his words exactly -- 'that uses invisible ink.'"

No one knows why he said this.


more...

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/election08/086