March 21, 2006

Touch screen voting

As far as I know, this is the first time Rock Island County has used touch screen voting units, though as of now, voters still have the option of chosing to use a paper ballot.

The county clerk's office is to be commended for tackling the huge task of adopting the new technology and rolling out and implementing the system, as well as training poll workers to work with it.

Compared to the days of hand-counting and tabulating ballots at the polling place, then lugging the ballots down to the clerk's office, where they'd then feed them into counting machines for hours... or ever worse, dealing with mechanical voting machines which weighed a ton, the computerized system is a quantum leap in efficiency, and one would hope, accuracy and security.

What are your thoughts on the leap to computerized voting?

If you used the touch screen technology for the first time, how was the experience? Was it easy to understand and use? Any confusion or problems?
Do you prefer it over the old punch card method?

3 Comments:

At 3/21/2006 6:12 PM, Blogger -shane- said...

There weren't any touch screens at MY polling place in Rock Island at ALL. Still paper ballots for us.

 
At 3/21/2006 7:12 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I loved the new voting machine. It was very very easy, and I loved the fact that I could see who I was voting for on paper, in case there is a problem!

 
At 3/21/2006 7:27 PM, Blogger The Inside Dope said...

The touch screens are pretty slick, and they are very easy to read in clear, large type. Not much chance for confusion.

I think it's a more natural process for the voter to follow and it is much superior to punch card ballots in that regard.

 

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