Cross-posting from Latest Breaking News...

[mojowork_n]

From ThinkProgress, just now:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014285721

On Tuesday, ThinkProgress reported on how the Romney campaign is training poll watchers to mislead voters in Wisconsin. Now, an election official in the Badger State has weighed in to criticize the Romney campaign’s practice of hiding their poll watchers’ affiliations and confirm that the materials they used in trainings are misleading.

Reid Magney, a spokesman for Wisconsin’s Government Accountability Board, spoke with the Washington Post about the story Tuesday and corrected the Romney campaign’s claims...

...One other thing to look out for:

Pens taped to the voting booths.

I voted early Sunday morning. When I was handed my ballot, I was told, "use a number two pencil to mark your ballot."

S U R P R I S E

When I stepped up to the booth there was a (surprisingly short) string with a number two pencil on the end. And also one of those metal chains, like you'd find at your bank -- attached to a ball point. (I'm pretty sure.) I was more worried about not screwing up my own vote than checking it out -- I didn't actually grab the chain and hold what was on the end of it.

But in retrospect I think it was a booby trap. A writing instrument taped to the side of the booth that might have invalidated my vote. (Don't know what color ink it was, or how it could have been picked up by the optical scanner.)

I reported it afterward. Called in to the Election Commission Monday morning and went back after work Monday night, after having emailed an election watch alert site. I spoke with one of the poll workers and was assured that yes, they sometimes have to rip up ballots when someone uses a pen instead of a pencil to mark their vote. They give that voter another ballot and have them do it over. All the election workers are on the look-out for improperly marked votes and pens instead of pencils in the booths.

It's probably not a huge part of Karl Rove's election theft strategy. More likely a distraction or diversion, the way they tell people "election day is Thursday." But the conclusion I've drawn is that the person in the booth ahead of me was one of those hard line R's who probably thought he or she was saving America and making 'the White House white again.' And he or she left me a little present.

So... Go vote early. But if you see a pen in the polling booth...

...tell one of the election workers. Like I didn't, until the next day.

[Suich]

1. I've never heard of having to use a pencil instead of a pen.

All I've been told is to fill in the space.

Sounds odd to me...

[dragonlady]

2. Where I vote

with the same optical scan machine, felt tip pens are provided and no one has ever suggested they didn't work correctly. Maybe the machine has options on what kind of marks to accept. If the machine rejects your absentee ballot, the election workers should remake it on a fresh ballot and feed that through. I remember once in Milwaukee, before the absentee ballots were counted at a central location, there was an absentee ballot that the scanner wouldn't accept, and the poll workers traced over the voter's pen marks with a pencil in order to make the machine take it.

[ginnyinWI]

3. we do too

black markers attached with chains or strings.

[mojowork_n]

4. That's new to me.

Last edited Thu Nov 1, 2012, 08:30 AM - Edit history (1)

I've never seen a felt tip pen at a polling booth. It's always been pencils where we vote (Miltown, E-side), and that's what they had at the Zeidler Building.

It wouldn't seem to make that much difference. I use a scanner quite a bit at my job and if it's a dark enough line, it will show up.

But maybe that's not the best comparison. We all use ATM's with touchscreens, too, and have gotten used to those being pretty reliable. But vote tabulation machines don't cost nearly as much as ATM's do. Something like 6 or 7 times less, I think. Depending on how they're set up for resolution, dots per inch, it's possible the scanners in an optical scan machine aren't quite as trustworthy, and there's less sensitivity and reliability there, too. ...When I went back to ask the poll worker about it she was very definite about always using a dark pencil. They rip up ballots that they see anyone's used a ball point on and make you do it over. I can see a possibility for deliberate sabotage if someone knew what kind of ink reflected light, wouldn't leave a good mark for the scanner, but looked 'fine' to casual observation.

Object Lesson:

Maybe it all boils down to "privatized voting" versus election integrity. The R's have closer ties to all the voting machine manufacturers. Those people aren't interested in seeing their manufacturing costs increase, to produce units that are any more reliable than they have to be. The R's probably look at early voting as a potential disaster. If they lose a republican vote here or there, in the City of Milwaukee, the math works out for them. The more votes that are spoiled, the greater the number of democratic votes they'd wipe out. So who's the watch dog? Here in Wisconsin, it's the G.A.B.

Election workers should be told not just to rip up ballots and re-do those votes They should be hanging on to any pen that's left behind in a booth. Then check those pens for how well they scan. If the ink's too shiny, on a consistent basis, that would be a huge red flag.

But getting the G.A.B. to actually look out for something like that... we're back to "privatized voting," and promoting those interests. (At least, that's the way things have been going, lately.)