When you go to vote tomorrow you will encounter New York City’s new electronic voting machine.
“The DS200 Ballot Scanner system is a portable electronic voting system that uses an optical scanner to read marked paper ballots and tally the results. This system allows for paper ballots to be immediately tabulated at your polling site. The DS200 also notifies you of any voting errors. You will be able to immediately correct these errors to ensure that Your Vote Counts!”
I’m going to miss the old voting machines…
I liked going behind the curtain and having some alone time with the list of candidates. I liked pushing those levers (click) and then decisively pulling the big stick.
It was all very satisfying.
But this change is important—and mandated. NY is the last state to comply with HAVA, the Help America Vote Act, intended to avoid debacles like the 200o presidential race.
Tomorrow I will vote on a machine that looks like a fax machine. Instead of curtains and voting booths, there will be tables where I will fill out a SAT-style paper ballot (with bubbles?). Then I will feed my paper ballot into an electronic voting machine.
Hopefully this change won’t cause all kinds of delays and lines.