Voting machine memories

[Brian Roth]

I started this thread more as a "techie" branch from the "suppression" thread. My memories are from a USA standpoint, but I'd love to hear from others around the world.

1972 was the first time I was eligible to vote. I do NOT recall that exact process from 40+ years ago. However, I DO recall the machines used in Oklahoma after that time.

At the voting site, the county (state??) provided large mechanical machines that were at least 6 feet wide. You stepped into the machine's area and "threw" a large mechanical lever. Behind you, a curtain would close. You would flip little levers on the metal panel in front of you...each with a candidate's name next to them. When finished, you moved the big lever the other direction and the mechanical levers would reset and the curtain would open again so you could exit.

It was all a mechanical contraption. Apparently, internal gearing would increment for each candidate...maybe like a car's odometer. At the end of voting, somehow a LARGE piece of paper was imprinted with the tabulations and were (by law) posted at the voting site.

IIRC, the results from that large piece of paper were manually written down by election workers and hand-walked to the local government site in charge of tabulating.

In MUCH more recent times, Okla. went to what I seemed to trust. The voter was handed a thick paper (almost like cardboard) ballot and you used a provided felt-tipped pen to complete a space on the ballot for a candidate. Remember SAT tests?....same idea.

I'd feed that paper ballot into an optical reader machine and my ballot went into an attached box, in case a recount was required. I do not recall how the results from the optical reader were moved to the county's tabulators....but it was NOT via the internet....that didn't exist in the early days!

When I moved to Kansas, I was puzzled by the machines used in my new city. It was a series of touch screen pages. But, each time I made a selection on a page, I could see something printing on a paper roll behind a "glass" window next to the screen. When I was finished, I received a printed "grocery receipt" of my votes from the machine. No idea how the tabulation are transferred to "counting central".

I somehow trusted the Okla. system better....I've worked with enough digital equipment and computers to have some bad attitudes...LOL!

I am NOT one who believes that Jewish martians under the control of a dead dictator in South America alters the tabulations via Chinese lasers from outer space!!!! <g>

I'm just merely recalling the voting machines I've used over the decades, and asking others what sorts of tabulating machines they've encountered....USA and anywhere else.

Sigh...this will likely erupt into a political shouting match when I am merely asking about people's memories of voting procedures/machines through the recent decades. It's totally a Nerd Thing! <G!>

Bri

 

[groselicain]

I've only been eligible to vote for the last seventeen years, but the machines haven't changed yet here in Tennessee. It's a typical LCD screen with tactile switches under soft rubber membranes along the right margin. This was the first year I chose to write in a candidate and it was a bear—well, no more a bear than programing an Eventide H3000.

I've always found it interesting that there's no accompanying physical printout that the voter sees. A poll monitor merely accompanies you to the machine with a pre-punched card, ready to be collated on top of previous voters' cards on a matching clipboard, checks that the machine is ready, and then places your card on the stack. When you finish voting you push a big red tactile switch to lock in your vote, but you're not given any chance to review your choices—only a message confirming that you wish to cast your vote.

It strikes me as rather interesting that there's a physical record of the voters and the order in which they used each machine, but there's nothing else.

As an aside—as I write this, I feel like it sounds a bit like a JR addendum—I remember getting into a bit of an argument the first time I went to vote. My signature is rather quick and illegible, but it's reproducible for me. At my polling place, voters are required to check in at one of five stations according to the first letter of their last name. S-Z was worked by an older lady who had retired after many years of teaching public school in my county. After handing her my identification I was asked to confirm some details, then fill out a card. I printed my name and address, and then signed my name. She became rather curt and said, "that's not a signature, I'm going to need you to fill out another card." When I asked what the problem was, she stated, "That's just a scribble. A signature is written in cursive. Write it again." I'm normally one to just oblige folks to avoid an argument, but after having worked for years in a pharmacy that served a number of illiterate Appalachian folks I felt strongly that a citizen's signature was whatever they deemed it to be. In fact, I've seen many an X marked when handing someone their order. I politely expressed this to the lady, took my card, and walked toward the machine. She's looked at me angrily every two years when I've returned.

 

[Brian Roth]

@groselicain​

As far as signatures are concerned, I guess I "learned" from my Dad who had a distinctive scrawl vs. Mom who's cursive was quite distinct and clear! As for me, my scrawl has always been repeatable for many years....

Interesting re. write-ins....I had to look, but in Okla. write-ins are not allowed at all....something I seem to have always recalled from the decades I lived there

https://ballotpedia.org/Write-in_candidate
Based on that link, the votes in Kansas (and Tennessee) are only counted if the candidate somehow was "registered" with the state. I don't recall seeing an option here in Salina on the touchscreen machine....maybe because I wasn't familiar with the machines.

IOW, as often as I wanted to vote for Alfred E. Newman <g>.... in OK or KS or TN....not an option.

From the map I linked, it looks like JR here on this forum (he's located in MS) is in the same boat as I was OK.

Bri

 

[Tubetec]

Some bright spark here in Ireland tried to bring in electronic voting about 20 years ago ,
I think an objection was made in courts to its use , the e-voting system was also found to be hackable .
The idea was shelved , but the machines were already bought and payed for to the tune of many millions ,
subsequently these machines had to be put in storage , thats still costing the tax payer to this day .
A flight of fancy that ended up a total farce .

 

[Tubetec]

I raised an objection to the use of supplied pencils to fill out ballots in my local voting station one year, I took along a ballpoint to make my mark .
The next vote 6 years later I called the polling station staff out on their use of mobile phones in the voting halls trying to profile people via biometric/facial,, that charge stuck when I reported the matter to the county sherrif of elections , after that a policy on mobile phone use by voting hall staff was introduced locally at least,

The old fashioned one armed bandit mechanical punch card voting machine that Brian described makes a ton load of sense to me ,
Each candidate might have a unique punch die and funky chits are examined by eye ,
theres nothing ever 100% foolproof ,
The internet gives the A.I. has the oppertunity to change 1's to 0's ,

The closer the political divide is to 50/50 the more the marginals matter , the less apparent cheating is , long game A.I. wins John,

Take computer chess as a gauge of A.I. , humans in the game against the machine are pawns ,mincemeat against self learning systems that evolve without funk or emotion , 15 years ago a handheld device could wipe all but the best off the table in a matter of moves ,
Theres no such thing as chess champions any more , its only a matter of counting down the number of moves the machine makes till its game over .