10:44 AM: 49th ward. 26th precinct. My Sequoia Voting Systems machine only let me vote for the three national races. No one knew how to operate the system - and no one wanted to learn. And everyone wanted to blame me. It was my fault. I pressed the buttons.
After dealing with the BOE, having a couple of investigators and the people from the Illinois Ballot for Integrity come to help, along with a poll-watcher from Senator Steans office, I was told there was nothing anyone could do and what races I voted for was all I was going to get to vote for. End of story. That's what Michael Barz from the BOE said.
And damn-it if I was going to run to that lousy, no good David Fagus and have him tell me I should've used the magic pen.
This wasn't the only problem while I was there. Two blind neighbors needed assistance and none was to be had. We only had two election judges on duty. The scene got chaotic. The line started to really back up. In my call for help to the downtown board of elections, 4 replacement judges arrived and then they started arguing with the two judges who were already there. One of the other election judges showed up and made matters worse, really getting into it with a replacement judge. The lady in the walker filled out her ballot right there on the sign-in line with the help of one judge at the table.
Total time dealing with this electronic voting issue. 1 hour and 30 minutes.
My questions:
1) Why weren't the judges in precinct 26 trained to use the Sequoia Voting System?
2) When asked by the BOE Investigator to learn how to operate the system - why were they allowed to stay on as judges if they didn't even want to learn how the system worked?
3) Why did my electronic card only have three national races on it - and not any of the state races, judge retention, and con-con question. (I've still got my card if anyone wants to examine it.)
4) Can a polling place even be open with just two unqualified judges on hand.
I've got more questions, for sure. In the mean time feel free to pile it on. I gotta be the dumbest voter this election cycle. Right, Amy?
For the record, they shut the Sequoia Voting Machine down in the 26th. No more electronic voting.
3 comments:
On July 12, 2005, Suburban Cook County entered into a contract with Sequoia Voting Systems, based in Oakland, California, for the purchase of 2,450 Sequoia Insight Optical Scan units and 3,000 000 Sequoia AVC Edge Touch Screen units with VeriVote Printers and associated accessories, maintenance and warranty services.
Similarly, on August 11, 2005, the City of Chicago executed a contract with Sequoia to purchase 2,950 each of the Optech Insight optical scanners and the Sequoia AVC Edge Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines with VeriVote printer, for use in its 2,709 precincts.
The County is seeking federal grants to purchase systems, including card activators, memory devices,
workstations, servers, modems, routers tabulation and communications software and associated
peripheral equipment from Sequoia for approximately $23.8 million (including capital costs and maintenance/warranty agreements).
The City of Chicago contract calls for the expenditure of some $26.6 million under basically the same terms and conditions. Source.
That's a lot of money. How many voters use this system?
I will never use any electronic voting system unless it prints out the actual votes that I chose & the print out is whats counted by using some sort of bar code next to each name or Yes/No I picked.
I did the paper ballot today & I will continue to use it.
At least it has an easily verifiable paper trail of votes.
I made a mistake & voted both yes & no on some judge on the retention ballot. Since I wasn't going to have them void the ballot & start over [takes too long], when the machine kicked the ballot out for overvoting I just told them to override it & accept it.
I had the old time voting card and used a pen to connect the arrows! At first, I was confused looking for the punches or the digital screen! LOL
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