I guess I just want my vote registered properly
somewhere. I live in a very Democratic part of the State of Michigan. So I don't suspect chenanigans, because even if there were outright corruption I'm confident it would be corrupt in my vote's favor. This is simply about the flurry of problems I expect we're going to see with not just the touch-screen ballots, but also with the
AccuScan Optical Scanners.
I selected a "straight democratic ticket." Then I skipped down to the "non-partisan" section and carefully selected the number of votes allowed for various judge and other positions. Then I turned my ballot over and cast my vote for the statewide and local proposals.
The scanner rejected my ballot, and displayed a read out which was mostly indeciperhable except for the words "ERROR INCORRECT SPLIT".
There was no "split" on my ballot which could have been incorrect, which was ballot #000013 in my district. I did my homework over the past two weeks, and even downloaded this .PDF file which helped me to understand my proposals. But inside the non-partisan section of the Optical Scan ballot there were no disignations of any party affiliation for any of those candidates. Nor could I discern even a political leaning from this page with which I did my judge candidate research.
"Step aside, please and wait here" I was told.
After about ten minutes I was approached again, and led over to have my "Spoiled Ballot" set aside - over in the corner on a stack of boxes. I was given a new ballot, ballot #000018 this time.
On my second attempt, in interest of maintaining my straight ticket democratic vote, I chose not to vote for any judges or other appointments on side A of the ballot. Since it was possible that those votes were being read by the scanner as the "INCORRECT SPLIT" I didn't see any other choice. So I forfeited my right to vote for judges and other non-partisan appointments.
I don't know now whether my vote will be counted properly, or whether having an old ballot which had been run through the scanner with an error will void my vote. I just don't know whether I even had a vote this morning or not.
When you add the built-in problems electronic voting comes with to the usual chaos of confused elderly people faithfully serving as poll volunteers, trying to locate names and addresses in books of lists that would freak me out, I'm left with a deep concern that we are going to have to visit this issue over and over again until we get it right. These systems DO NOT WORK as flawlessly as they MUST work when an American vote is at stake.