Post by debster on Nov 4, 2008 9:41:02 GMT -5
i've heard on the news about all of the cluster fucks that have happened at misc precincts, but i have never witnessed any of them. until this morning, when i went to "attempt" to vote.
i got up early and was at my precinct 10 minutes before it opened (i know, really? deb? that early? yes.). so i only had about 25 people in front of me. first, they didn't want to let me vote because my license says debra and my registration card says debbie. but with a last name like hansli and all the address info matching they handed me the form.
next, after filling out my form i went and stood in line at the scanner. this is where things got fucked up. it appeared that the scanner was jamming on some of the ballots and wasn't reading them. on most of them you could just open the lid and pull the ballot out and re-scan it, but on a couple it just sent the ballot through without counting them. so what did the lady do? she sent one lady over to get another ballot and re-vote. !?!?!?
the next guy refused to do that and wanted his ballot pulled back out, which they can't do because they can't open it, so he just stood there. so they sent the next person up to see if it would work and hers went through fine, but when she questioned whether it was counted, they pulled all of the pink slips that had been turned into the pollster and counted them, there were 21 and the machine had only tallied 17. again, !?!?!?!?
several more people were sent up and the scanner seemed to be working right, but when i went up i checked the number which was set at 21, and scanned my form only to find that after it accepted it the ticker was STILL AT 21. (yes i really was that early). GDI!!! DID MY VOTE COUNT OR WHAT??? i stood and argued with the woman, made them recount again (which i was right!), people behind me were on their cell phones bitching to the supervisor of elections office and everything came to a standstill while the pollster talked on her cell phone to a scanner tech at the elections office. they started putting the ballots in a side slot until a tech could get there to restart it and fix the problem. but what about the lady that voted twice? i'm pretty sure she was the only one, but damn!
for those that haven't voted yet, watch the counter and make sure your vote counts. and if not, have a tantrum like i did.
i got up early and was at my precinct 10 minutes before it opened (i know, really? deb? that early? yes.). so i only had about 25 people in front of me. first, they didn't want to let me vote because my license says debra and my registration card says debbie. but with a last name like hansli and all the address info matching they handed me the form.
next, after filling out my form i went and stood in line at the scanner. this is where things got fucked up. it appeared that the scanner was jamming on some of the ballots and wasn't reading them. on most of them you could just open the lid and pull the ballot out and re-scan it, but on a couple it just sent the ballot through without counting them. so what did the lady do? she sent one lady over to get another ballot and re-vote. !?!?!?
the next guy refused to do that and wanted his ballot pulled back out, which they can't do because they can't open it, so he just stood there. so they sent the next person up to see if it would work and hers went through fine, but when she questioned whether it was counted, they pulled all of the pink slips that had been turned into the pollster and counted them, there were 21 and the machine had only tallied 17. again, !?!?!?!?
several more people were sent up and the scanner seemed to be working right, but when i went up i checked the number which was set at 21, and scanned my form only to find that after it accepted it the ticker was STILL AT 21. (yes i really was that early). GDI!!! DID MY VOTE COUNT OR WHAT??? i stood and argued with the woman, made them recount again (which i was right!), people behind me were on their cell phones bitching to the supervisor of elections office and everything came to a standstill while the pollster talked on her cell phone to a scanner tech at the elections office. they started putting the ballots in a side slot until a tech could get there to restart it and fix the problem. but what about the lady that voted twice? i'm pretty sure she was the only one, but damn!
for those that haven't voted yet, watch the counter and make sure your vote counts. and if not, have a tantrum like i did.
