Voting today

I was surprised at the voting procedure.Filled all the little circles with ink and returned the paper to the worker. Every time she fed the ballot to the machine it was returned. She asked if she could look at the ballot to see if there was an error. She said maybe I needed to make rounder circles so I did and returned the paper. Guess what?It did the same thing. I am thinking maybe it is the machine. Sure enough,it was the wrong district machine. She apologized greatly and everything was fine. I just feel this system is so unreliable.Give me the old machines where the ballot cannot wander away.

I am sorry to hear that poll workers are having to tell the anti-turf activists their aggressiveness is making voters uncomfortable.

dumb system. The machine should have enough smarts to tell you if it's the correct ballot or not. Basic.

galileo said:

I was surprised at the voting procedure.Filled all the little circles with ink and returned the paper to the worker. Every time she fed the ballot to the machine it was returned. She asked if she could look at the ballot to see if there was an error. She said maybe I needed to make rounder circles so I did and returned the paper. Guess what?It did the same thing. I am thinking maybe it is the machine. Sure enough,it was the wrong district machine. She apologized greatly and everything was fine. I just feel this system is so unreliable.Give me the old machines where the ballot cannot wander away.

So it was human error. There would be a simple, non-tech way to avoid that. 

I voted. Filled out the little circles. 

Watched her put the ballot in the machine.  It did its thing and I went home.

About 10 minutes.

Voting was easy.  The system works well.  I appreciate the poll workers who volunteer their time.  

Mail ballot. I voted weeks ago. Super easy. 

I appreciate the ease that early voting provides, but:

What if between the time of your early vote, and election day: one of your chosen candidates gets caught

with a dead hooker or a live kid?

Just thinking out loud here.

TomR

You should be feeding the ballot into the scanner yourself from the privacy sleeve.  Otherwise, those around will see you votes.

Tom_R said:

I appreciate the ease that early voting provides, but:

What if between the time of your early vote, and election day: one of your chosen candidates gets caught

with a dead hooker or a live kid?

Just thinking out loud here.

TomR

 Well, this could also happen right after the polls close on Election Day. There's always a possibility for voter remorse. Should you wait until five minutes before the polls close to be absolutely sure that your candidate won't do something regrettable?

Edited to fix a typo 

Tom_R said:

I appreciate the ease that early voting provides, but:

What if between the time of your early vote, and election day: one of your chosen candidates gets caught

with a dead hooker or a live kid?

Just thinking out loud here.

TomR

 what if I get in a car accident on the way to the polls on Election Day and spend the entire day in the hospital and don't get to cast a ballot at all? 

Steve said:

You should be feeding the ballot into the scanner yourself from the privacy sleeve.  Otherwise, those around will see you votes.

 Exactly! That was the way I did mine

Tom_R said:

I appreciate the ease that early voting provides, but:

What if between the time of your early vote, and election day: one of your chosen candidates gets caught

with a dead hooker or a live kid?

Just thinking out loud here.

TomR

 I've been less concerned about a candidate getting " caught" than about the dilemma I've had in trying to decide on who to vote for in the BOE elections and timing when to send in my early ballot. It seems like there is always one more debate (or candidate reveal after I mail my ballot that changes my mind about who might be a better BOE member.

Steve and Tall Mocha - The worker took the ballot from me and fed it into the machine. When it didn't work she asked if she could look at the voting side. I know she was just trying to help but I felt something was wrong. That's why I think this process is questionable. The ballot can move. It worked out fine for me but not necessarily in some questionable areas.

galileo said:

Steve and Tall Mocha - The worker took the ballot from me and fed it into the machine. When it didn't work she asked if she could look at the voting side. I know she was just trying to help but I felt something was wrong. That's why I think this process is questionable. The ballot can move. It worked out fine for me but not necessarily in some questionable areas.

Never let anyone take your ballot from you.   

I also had the poll worker take my ballot and put it through the machine.  Of course I was next to him the whole time watching.  The first pass didn't take.

The poll workers at my site didn't say anything about the actual purpose of the privacy screen, just handed it to me. I figured it was to protect the ballot as I went from the area where I filled it out, then to the scanner and then while waiting on line for my turn at the scanner. The woman at the scanner simply said put the ballot through, either side up. I put written side down, of course. No one that I saw was using the privacy screens to feed the ballots through and there were no instructions to do so. We'll know for next time, but this time seemed a bit hit or miss.

I’m never voting on Election Day again. Mail it in.

mrincredible,

Waiting for the last five minutes would create one long line in the evening.

I just prefer to wait until election day.

To all and sundry:

My statement was neither criticism, nor advice.

Only, as I wrote, thinking out loud.

TomR

Jaytee said:

I’m never voting on Election Day again. Mail it in.

Vote early instead.  You get to feed your ballot into the scanner and see that it was timely submitted. No worries about messing up the envelope or mail issues or anything else. 

Hi,

Just posted this on Maplewood Specific.

Today's Dem Primary ballot could cause confusion because the two opposing candidates for Township Committee are on the same line. Some voters might vote for both which would invalidate the ballot

STANV said:

Hi,

Just posted this on Maplewood Specific.

Today's Dem Primary ballot could cause confusion because the two opposing candidates for Township Committee are on the same line. Some voters might vote for both which would invalidate the ballot

I guess they (the party folks) just can't win.  It was a big effort to put them on the same line (both endorsed, let the voters decide) which is thought to be a more open and fair method and attract more people to run for office.  Doesn't the ballot say to only vote for 1?  If that notice wasn't prominent enough, then perhaps that could be improved in the future, but I don't think the solution is to revert to the old system where the person on the top line usually had an advantage just from the position.

Tom_R said:

I appreciate the ease that early voting provides, but:

What if between the time of your early vote, and election day: one of your chosen candidates gets caught

with a dead hooker or a live kid?

Just thinking out loud here.

TomR

I voted just yesterday with my mail-in ballot, so presumably avoids that situation.  I could have even waited until today.  (I dropped it off at the secure box, which is now in front of the Hilton Library, rather than the Police Station as before, but either place was easy and convenient.)  I'm now on the permanent mail-in list and very happy that I can do it this way with the local secure boxes, so no worries about misdirected postal mail OR waiting in line at the voting location.

STANV said:

Hi,

Just posted this on Maplewood Specific.

Today's Dem Primary ballot could cause confusion because the two opposing candidates for Township Committee are on the same line. Some voters might vote for both which would invalidate the ballot

I voted this morning.  I think that if we did mark our ballots incorrectly, the machine wouldn't accept them right there.

I voted by mail too.  Drop off box at Hilton Branch makes this easy.  

I voted early, and the piece of paper where I signed my name and put my address was color coded for political party. I would testify in court that in the past they’ve all always been white. Is this to make it easier for the challengers? (Though I saw no challengers at my polling place.)

It took three tries to get the scanning machine to take my ballot.  It got spit back out twice, showing my votes to the poll worker. They need to fix these bugs.

(Former poll worker here, but I'm not in NJ, so your machines may be different)

The machine may accept your ballot face-down.  If a ballot comes back out of the machine, as poll workers we were instructed to tell the voter the most common reasons for rejection, so the voter could review the ballot.  If that failed, then ask the voter if they mind our looking at it to see what's gone wrong.  Most were fine with having the poll worker look.  Truly, by the end of the day I couldn't have told you who voted what way, and i didn't know who most of the voters were anyhow (poll worker overseeing the machine was not the same person who checked the voter in at the poll book).

Happy franchise, all!  May it continue!

It appears my ballot may have not been counted. I looked up the results for my voting district on the Essex County website.  According to Essex County, Joe D. got 100% of the votes in my district but I wrote in another name.  It's not clear if the numbers are final yet.