I Voted!

It's Election Day.  Have you voted yet?

 

I voted this morning at our usual polling place (and got a Foursquare badge, yay).  The process has completely changed from the last time I voted and it was a little unsettling!  Change is welcome, but feels weird sometimes.

 

The way NY has always voted -- from the time I went into the voting booths with my parents as a little kid -- was in this big antiquated voting booth where you pulled a lever to close the curtains, flicked little knobs to vote for each person, reviewed your votes, and then brought the lever back to record your votes and leave.  It may not have been the best system and it certainly had its problems, but after voting like that for years, it was very... comfortable.

 

Now, they give you a ballot and a "privacy sleeve" (a manila folder) and have you go back to a little cardboard booth with a (standing) desk to color in the bubbles (like the SAT) for your choice.  I don't know why but turning the knobs and hearing each one click felt so much better than coloring in little bubbles!  (Although I did like the sample for coloring in bubbles - vote for your favorite ice cream! But seriously - vanilla, chocolate and butter pecan?  When did butter pecan become ice cream flavor #3?  What about strawberry, pistachio, mint chocolate chip?  I was thinking maybe they picked it as some form of racial analogy or joke, but google research just told me that butter pecan ice cream really is the third flavor according to the "Ice Cream Association."  I've never even had butter pecan ice cream!  I always thought strawberry was #3!  Anyway.) Also most people missed the proposals before in the booth because they were set off to the side.  Now they're on the back of the page so they're even easier to miss.

 

When you're done, you take your sheet to the scanner, which takes it and then you're done.  Well, not me.  First, we realized that somewhere along the way I lost my card with my name and number on it.  The lady said it was because I was texting but I wasn't and had the card when I left the table but didn't have it when I got to the booth to color in my votes (and forgot she gave it to me -- I'm tired!).  But there was no card on the floor.  Turned out someone picked it up and gave it to someone.  So of course I didn't know what happened to it. 

 

Second, why wouldn't the scanner tell you your votes and ask you to confirm?  For all I know, they think I voted for the Republicans and misread my bubbles.  If it's an electronic system, how hard would it be to pop up the votes and ask you to press a button to confirm?  There's a lot of uncertainty here.

 

Third, the machine told me there was an error and to notify an election official.  On the same screen that it told me my ballot counted.  Huh?  So... did my vote count or not?  I sure hope it did.  I don't want a governor who thinks that I'm catatonic because I live in Manhattan.

 

I miss the old broken voting booths.  These new ones just feel weird.