Iowa Voters

Despite the ever-flowing river of condemnation for DRE voting machines(see the California report just six weeks ago), Pocahontas county uses them at every opportunity, forsaking their paper ballot equipment. Today in an uncontested school board race, we had to vote on the touchscreen.

Since the outcome was virtually certain anyway, I used the occassion to write in a candidate instead of voting for the unchallenged incumbent. I wrote in “Paper Ballot.”

Doing so caused me to realize something. The election workers could tell I was writing in a candidate! Every time I touched a letter on the screen as I typed out P-a-p-e-r B-a-l-l-o-t the Diebold made a beeping noise. The election judge was only six feet away. No other voters were in the room, so it was quiet as could be. She had been listening to voters all day. She knows it doesn’t take that many beeps to vote on two races.

Meanwhile the old red, white and blue voting booths for paper ballot use stood unoccupied like ghosts from the past on the north wall of the room. They are always there, always ready. They don’t beep, either. One can actually vote secretly in one of them.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 at 10:03 pm and is filed under Why We Fight. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.