As a long-time LA County poll worker (20+ years) I can speak to the new system’s glitches and pluses as well. I agree with the synch problem issue— we had only 2 check in units at the place I worked and we did have to switch back and forth when one synched new information, every 15 minutes— and that new information was coming in from all over the County constantly. That tied up things, obviously. The venue I worked was one where voters expected to see the numerous booths all around the gym as they had for years. This time? Four of these specialized iPads to take their votes after checking in.
One of the problems was so many people who had registered “no party preference” or meant to by registered “American Independent Party” by mistake— they didn’t know AIP is an actual political party. Upon check many needed to modify their registration so as to be able to vote for Democratic Party candidates- which is what they all wanted to do!
The lines did get long yesterday. Many people unaccustomed to have 11 days to vote in person waited until Tuesday afternoon.
There was this thing they could do, however, while waiting in line— create a “Poll Pass” which generated a QR Code which could then be scanned at the voting booth after they checked in. The Poll Pass then populated the ballot which had all the candidates and issues for the voter’s home precinct. Granted, not everyone is that tech savvy, but in LA County many are. Over the course of the day we repeatedly encouraged those in line at my location to create the Poll Pass, many did, and most worked just fine.
Additionally, the voter got to verify these choices twice, on screen and then on the printed paper ballot, before they submitted the ballot into the ballot box connected to the unit and secured with a zip tie that was scanned when used to secure the box and when later removed.
When a ballot box becomes full— they hold about 200 ballots—the ballots are removed to a secure location within the polling place. At the end of the day the number of ballots to be taken to the collection site for the day is verified and transported by two poll workers.
The ballot box connected to the voting unit has its own label which is scanned and then is secured again with a new zip tie with an ID code that is scanned. Each such action is recorded so that it was clear which ballot boxes were opened and closed and when. They are also checked during the course of the voting day to make sure there’s been no breach of security.
I saw no indication of any “flipping” by the machines— if a ballot came out of the system not matching the voter’s intentions, it was voided and a new one issued for a do-over. People do make mistakes, so three do-overs are allowed, but I didn’t see anybody who needed more than two, and over two days I personally saw only one of those. There were relatively few ballot re-issues over the 2 days I worked, and only 1 jam that I saw. The ballot was removed, was not damaged, and was resubmitted successfully.
Out of all the MANY ballots cast over the course of the two days I worked around 50-60 had to be provisional for any reason. MANY “mail in” ballots were dropped off.
We did have one voting booth down for most of the 11 days— tech finally came and got it fixed yesterday afternoon after numerous complaint calls by our “lead.” Turns out to have been a minor glitch, but should have been remedied much sooner.
We heard other sites had several pieces of equipment down, not just one, so we were fortunate. (We were actually using a spare after 1 went down early, so we had 2 glitchy actual polling machines out of the five originals.)
Again, the big issue was having only 2 check-in pads. If we had been given 4 I think we would have had far less delay. At the nominal closing time of 8pm last night we had about 50 people in line. All were allowed to vote, of course. We finished up about 9:10pm, then did our counts and verifications, and left about an hour later.
I am NOT saying it was a totally bad experience, but I am saying the word about the new system was definitely not circulated early enough or in sufficient detail before the voting period started on 2/22, AND I am saying the Poll Pass idea should have been encouraged more. Also, a video to watch about the whole thing should have been readily available online way before the election.
All in all, I think it would be much harder to breach this system thanks to the paper backup, and the repeat opportunities to correct errors before actually casting the ballot. Does it need improvements? Definitely. Tossing out? No, I really think that would be incredibly stupid.