"20 Chicago voters told they could cast ballots in invisible ink"

[orleans]

Associated Press - February 5, 2008 8:03 PM ET

CHICAGO (AP) - Call it a super-secret ballot.

A Chicago Board of Elections spokesman says voters filling out paper ballots at one precinct today were given styluses used for touchscreen voting instead of ink pens.

The spokesman says when the voters indicated they couldn't mark their ballots with the pens, they were told -- incorrectly -- that the pens used invisible ink.

The spokesman says after 20 people experienced the same problem, somebody noticed that there were 20 ballots on which nobody had voted for anything.

Officials say they have contacted 5 of the 20 voters and are waiting to hear from the others.

http://www.wboc.com/Global/story.asp?S=7827756&nav=MXEFM7m7

jeez!

[hobbit709]

1. Invisible ink??????

:wtf: :wtf: And they went along with this? I know what I would have said if somebody at the polling place tried to tell ME that.

[frazzled]

2. Um, there's no way of connecting an opti-scan ballot with a specific voter

How could they contact these supposed voters?
Something sounds kind of fishy about this story. Especially the part about "invisible ink"--it shows right on the ballot how to connect the gap between the two parts of the arrow with the BLACK pen.

[orleans]

4. i don't know. the chicago trib had the story on google but when

you click on the link you can't find it: (from google)
"Election officials probe use of 'magic' invisible ink pens in 49th ...
Chicago Tribune, United States - 1 hour ago
Democratic judge Diane Flowers reaches for a new ballot for Geraldine Cobbs (far right), who spoiled her ballot by going over the lines at the LaFollette ... "

you're right. i heard this on local radio (chicago) today, but it does sound "fishy"

[Jackpine Radical]

3. A deplorable act by the pollworker...but a part of me can't help thinking,

Apparently an IQ above the outside temperature is not a prerequisite for voting.

[Oak2004]

5. okay, do we now need to test poll workers for intelligience before certifying *them*? nt

[tritsofme]

6. Invisible ink ....winning the dead vote.

Yea, things are kind of fucked up in Chicago.