Diebold machines in use

[zaffa]

West TN wasn't using paper ballots at the polling station in one of the local high schools.

 

[TNforPaul45]

Here in Greenfield, Weakley County, the touch screens were in effect as well. I hate these things, give me the creeps (and I work in technology, guess that's why!). I took it very very slow and made sure to carefully read the confirm screen to make sure it registered my votes properly.

Just causes one to feel uneased.

 

[ConstitutionGal]

Almost the entire state of Tennessee has gone over to those stupid touch screen machines. NO way to verify votes AT ALL!! Legislation has been introduced again to go back to paper ballots here in TN. Hopefully, we can get back to some sanity here but, it won't be in time to help this election cycle.

 

[superfrodies]

Yea i voted today at edgehill library and asked if I could use a paper ballot instead of the machine and they said no.

 

[Lisa S]

Ga. has touch screens with no paper ballots.

 

[slacker921]

"Ga. has touch screens with no paper ballots." .. shakes head.. doesn't really matter much.. look at NH which had paper ballots. Lot of good those paper ballots did when they were sealed in boxes with essentially "post-it" note labels and big gaps along the top big enough to slide things in. There's no way to know if blank-extra ballots were used to make the count match what the diebolds reported after the voting took place since there's no record of unused ballots. The whole process is a farce. At some point the sheeple will look around and realize they've been had. .. or not.

 

[freedom-maniac]

Well that'll be interesting. States w/ paper ballots RP does 10, 15%...states with machines he gets 3%...Of course this is just what I'm guessing. We'll have to wait to find out.

 

[BoBoDuFlachi]

Diebold in Shelby and Tipton County.

 

[WedgeTalon]

Out in East TN (Blount county) they have some sort of machine that has this scroll wheel thing that you use to select your choices. I'm guessing they've been around for a few thousand years.

 

[JonathanR]

I was forced to vote on the scroll wheel machine. I asked for a paper ballot and was told I needed "an excuse" to get one. I said that I did not trust the machine. The poll worker said "That's not a good enough excuse according to the state of Tennessee. I can assure you the machines are 100% accurate." I replied "Well I hope you will forgive me if I don't share your optimism."

 

[WedgeTalon]

Yeah, I don't much trust those machines. Heck, when it clicked when "scrolling" it only moved the selection every 3 to 6 clicks. And those machines are very user UNfriendly in general anyway. I'm shocked that with so many technologically illiterate people around here that so many people are even able to use them.

 

[richard1984]

Out in East TN (Blount county) they have some sort of machine that has this scroll wheel thing that you use to select your choices. I'm guessing they've been around for a few thousand years.

Actually, I think that they're probably pretty new. They were having to show just about everyone how to use them, and most of the people there ("there" being Maryville High School) were older, experienced voters.
I thought that they were pretty annoying. Having to scroll through sooo many delegates (and I'm pleased to say that Ron Paul had the most by far) was a pain--not to mention the fact that the selection process way pretty damn confusing for a minute or so for both my fiancée and me. I have no idea how all of the elderly men and women figured out how to use the blasted things (since it even took a minute for use young folks to figure out).

These machines are completely stupid. We should keep it old-school, fill-in-the-bubble style.
Our lack of culture and tradition in America is screwing us over big-time.

 

[richard1984]

Yeah, I don't much trust those machines. Heck, when it clicked when "scrolling" it only moved the selection every 3 to 6 clicks. And those machines are very user UNfriendly in general anyway. I'm shocked that with so many technologically illiterate people around here that so many people are even able to use them.

That's what I'm saying.

I'd be willing to bet that the masses of "senior citizens" who vote in the primaries did not actually vote as they intended.

Voting is a private affair, thus asking for help is taboo. I'm sure that most people who were confused did not ask for help. (I'd also like to point out that the demonstration of how to use the voting machines did not look anything like the "ballot" we actually "filled out.")
Therefore, I don't doubt that many "ballots" were filled out incorrectly--i.e., many people voted for the wrong candidate.

 

[WedgeTalon]

These machines are at least 4 years old. I used them to vote in 04 (albiet in Knox, not Blount). And I found them cconfusing back then. I wanted to vote for Badnarick (the guy who was running Libertarian), but he wasn't listed. I had NO idea how to do a write-in (I don't seem to recall there being a "writein" checkbox like there was this year), so I ended up just voting for Nader (Pretty much anyone was better than Kerry or Bush IMO).

So, the fact still remains they suck. I'd rather have a paper ballot than these. The only thing I'd trust less would say "Diebold". Ideally, I'd like to see a 100% Open Source voting machine which prints a voter verifiable paper trail.

 

[tnvoter]

Electronic scroll wheel machine, Knox County.