Method of Voting

Remember back to the 2000 election and all the problems with those hanging chads? After that circus affair, there were calls to modernize voting equipment all across the country. That resulted in the Help America Vote Act. We were supposed to see a phase-in of more sophisticated equipment such as those touch screen devices. Touch screens haven’t come to our corner of Michigan—yet. To tell you the truth, I’m kinda glad.

Personally, I like punch ballots (like those used in Florida) the best. When I voted for the first time in East Lansing, punch ballots are what we used. It wasn’t hard to cast my vote. Latter in the week when the news locked onto those voting problems in Florida that threatened to hold up the election, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Oh, I was merciless when I described the ineptitude of Florida voters. Granted, the butterfly ballot (using a punch card) wasn’t the best design but still, any reasonably intelligent person should have read the instructions. Even if they didn’t they could have followed the arrows to the punch hole. And at least in Michigan, there was a direction to make sure all your punches went through and that the ballot was cleared before you turned it in.

The polling station that I used this year uses scan sheets. The voter fills in a broken arrow pointing to the candidate of his or her choice. Like the punch card, it leaves a paper trail. I don’t really have a problem with this method. In fact, this method makes it easier to review your ballot. What bothers me is that you have to insert the completed sheet into a device that looks like a business sized paper shredder.

I’m not ready to embrace the idea of electronic voting until they address the security issues. Hacking and the lack of a paper trail worry me. Plus I’m very pessimistic when it comes to the average voter’s intelligence. I don’t think electronic voting makes things easier. I can’t tell you how many times I have been stuck behind some a-hole who can’t work the self-checkout kiosk at Wal-mart. Those damn things walk you through it step by step and still they can’t get it! I can tell you, if they can’t figure that out, they aren’t going to figure it out in the voting booth.

No, I’ll stick with paper ballots. It’s simple—for most voters.