What are your voting machines like?

[bearsfootball516]

I'm in Elkhart, Indiana and the county just got new voting machines. They brought a couple over to the local library yesterday night and let the public test them while they showed you how to use them.

Basically, you scan your drivers licence on one machine and it spits out a long, blank paper ballot with your unique bar code in the corner. If you don't have a licence, you can type in your last name to pull yourself up on the machine and do it that way.

Then, you take your ballot and put it in a voting machine and all of the ballot questions appear on the screen. It's touchscreen, so you touch your choice, it gets a green check next to it, and you click "next" and repeat until your ballot is full. Once you're done, you hit "print" and the machine spits your ballot back out with all the choices on it, so you can review it.

Finally, you take it over to the counting machine, where you insert your ballot, it says "Your vote has been counted!" on a screen, and the paper ballot drops into a lockbox which can be used for a manual recount if necessary.

As far as I know, there is no internet connection in any of the machines.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. We get paper ballots. Using a black pen you fill in an oval next to the names

of the candidates you are voting for. Then you take the ballot to a scanner and insert it; it scans the ballot and gives you a message that your vote was counted. Then someone hands you a little red "I Voted" sticker and you're done.

[bearsfootball516]

3. That's how my buddies in neighboring St. Joseph County do it.

Home to Pete Buttigieg.

[Tracer]

5. Heh. You must live in my town.

'Cause that's exactly how we vote.

[MineralMan]

9. Yup. That's how Minnesota does it.

And then, after the election, random precincts are selected and a hand recount takes place and is compared with the official results. That way, any precinct could be the one selected for that test. Keeps everyone honest, it does.

It's a good system.

[maryellen99]

10. That's how Michigan does it nt

[Poiuyt]

18. Ours too. It's quite inefficient really

I show my driver's license to two people who each check off my name in two similar but separate books. They then give me a ticket with a number on it. I give that ticket to a third person who then gives me my ballot. Then I proceed like you did.

I actually kind of enjoy voting as it gives me a chance to visit with my neighbors. Everyone's in a good mood because we're all doing our civic duty.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

19. We don't even have to show ID, just get checked off on their list of registered voters,

and new voters can register at the polls on voting day (they do have to have ID showing they live in the precinct). The process is very quick and efficient. We have early voting too, but I like doing it the old-fashioned way, at the polling place.

[marble falls]

2. Ours could be shooting blanks for all I know, this is Texas after all.

[displacedtexan]

4. We get up to 8 pages of ballots in the mail & a huge voter guide beforehand.

We complete an arrow next to the candidate's name or yes/no proposition, and ranked voting columns for some municipal choices.

It's a very simple process. You can mail it back or put it in an official box at the courthouse. We take our sealed ballots to the polling place around the corner and put them in the lock box there because voting in San Francisco is a joyous social event.

[woofless]

16. That's how we do it up here in WA.

They even recently made the return envelope pre-paid. Drop boxes in library parking lots all over the county. Absolutely NO valid reason not to vote if you're registered.

[TheBlackAdder]

6. E-Voting in private curtained booth, with paper backup.

[RT Atlanta]

7. they suck here in GA

They are and have been for years the Diebold machines that so many folks on this very site first warned about early into bush's first term (after the Sept. 11 attacks). No paper receipts and 'son, you're gonna have to just have to trust us that your vote was counted.'

Current talk is that our state will spend $150million or so to 'upgrade' to new electronic systems that have been - surprise! - recommended by a former lobbyist to b. kemp (and who is now part of kemp's staff).

[DeminPennswoods]

8. Had touchscreen, but will be getting paper ballots

that will be fed through an optical scanner, votes recorded to a thumb drive/memory stick and ballot saved for later inspection if needed.

[BigmanPigman]

11. Paper ballots and ovals to fill in.

[Andy823]

12. Ballot comes in the mail

I sit down and fill it out, take it to the post office, and I am done! I live in Washington state.

[Wounded Bear]

15. Yep! Works like a charm...nt

[The Genealogist]

13. At my precinct

Which is in a conference room at a sports complex, a worker scans your license and they give you a scantron sheet with the measures and candidates. You fill in the bubbles for your favored candidate or position for the measures. Then you put the scantron sheet through a scanner, which lets you know it accepted your ballot by adding your vote to the total of the scanned ballots.

[area51]

14. "eSlate" in Houston

one article here.

[keithbvadu2]

17. "with your unique bar code in the corner" - no secret ballot

"with your unique bar code in the corner" - no secret ballot

[bearsfootball516]

20. There has to be SOME measure to prevent people from voting multiple times.

[keithbvadu2]

21. The ballot itself?

[Snotcicles]

22. That sounds like nice system as long as they required to keep those ballots for an ample period. nt

[Autumn]

23. I sit down have a cup of tea, or a glass of wine fill out the ovals put it in the envelope

and next day drive a couple of blocks and hand it to one of the nice people collecting them or mail it in. It all depends on my mood.