What if you REFUSED to use a Voting Machine & Demanded a paper ballot?

[Philosoraptor]

Would you lose the right to vote that day? I'm just asking.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

1. I tried it yesterday

There was no choice. Only the machine.

I was curious.

[Philosoraptor]

2. No choice huh? We need to be Pro Choice.

[Junkdrawer]

3. Some states will give you an optical scan ballot that will..

be passed though a hackable optical scan counter.

Cold comfort as they say...

[LibDemAlways]

13. My county just switched to opti-scan

(or is that opti-scam) ballots for the recent CA primary. The flier sent by the county proudly proclaimed that this is a paper system. On election day the counter was down, and we were instructed to put our ballots in a locked box to be counted "later." The counting device looked like a big paper shredder, and the entire process struck me as ripe for fraud.

Voting absentee wouldn't help because the ballot and counter are the same.

[Bassic]

21. Yeah, but at least in a recount, they can use the actual ballots.

That at least counts for something.

[lindisfarne]

26. except if the results aren't super-close, the candidate/person requesting

the recount has to pay (something) for the recount, in most states. Which discourages requests for recounts. Take San Diego: easily hackable Diebold voting machines sent home with poll workers for up to 2 weeks. All elections are questionable. A handful of people (like bradblog.com) are saying something about it. MSM is quiet, with exception of an Ed Schulz and Lou Dobbs interview with bradblog.

[Hugin]

4. I guess you could write it on a piece of paper and shove it in the card...

reader.

But, they'd probably cart you off as a Terraist.

[Vincardog]

5. I tried that last time. They said "we do not have any paper ballots".

The state did not send them any money to buy any.

[astonamous]

6. Is absentee voting a better option? n/t

Trudy
www.pryorsplanet.com

[Philosoraptor]

8. I usually vote absentee, never used the new machines.

I have used the old lever kind though, it's still a machine.

I feel like John Henry against the steel drivin' machine.

[unpossibles]

9. not if they choose to not count it

I'm pretty sure that provisional and absentee ballots are barely counted as it is. In other words, they have us by the yarbles

[astonamous]

20. Argh! You are probably right about them not counting

absentee and provisionals. Damn...and if my blood wasn't boiling I would laugh at your "Yarbles" comment. OK, I'm laughing, but my blood is still boiling.

Trudy
www.pryorsplanet.com

[lindisfarne]

27. they count absentee in CA. n/t

[Norquist Nemesis]

12. I have my doubts about absentee voting and provisionals

We never seem to hear anything about those. I haven't yet seen any 'final' tallies of votes that show a breakdown with absentee and provisionals, let alone showing new numbers different from the tally on election night. :shrug:

Always looked fishy to me...given the growing numbers of absentee/provisional ballots, you'd think we would be hearing and reading more about those counts. And those that are voting absentee/provisional may very well be disenfranchising themselves.

[leftchick]

28. our absentee ballots are counted by an optiscan machine

:argh:

[helderheid]

7. I'm doing just that by voting absentee.

[scorpiogirl]

10. My understanding is that they are required to have paper ballots

as an option. Two times ago when we voted both my husband and I asked for paper ballots and got them no problem. This last primary last week was only paper ballots though as our county got rid of the machines. I'm in CA.

[Philosoraptor]

11. I want a paper ballot with MY signature, and a receipt.

Is that asking too much I guess?

[Kukesa]

14. I'm a poll worker in Ohio

and where I work (suburb of Dayton) we don't have paper ballots and we can't get them. Here in Montgomery County we use Diebold touch-screen voting machines and nothing else.

If you must have paper, request an absentee ballot (that's what I do), otherwise you'd lose your right to vote in Ohio on that day.

[LiberalEsto]

15. When my husband requested a paper ballot in MD

in 2004 (politely), the election judges treated him as if he was insane. They got into a huge tizzy and actually surrounded him in case he tried to do something.

He did this as part of TrueVote Maryland's effort to test whether paper ballots were available or not.

I can't recall whether he got the paper ballot or not, but people all over the state reported problems trying to get them.

And, sad to say, in many parts of the US election officials won't even bother counting paper or provisional ballots.

[Cleita]

16. Supposedly you should be able to do this, however, I wonder

what would happen in reality. Would they not have paper ballots available, or if they did would they count them?

[SCDem]

24. I was a poll manager yesterday in SC elections

We had paper ballots available

[ChickMagic]

17. My hubby tried that

and was flatly refused. Had he not used the machine,
he would have been disenfranchised.

[derby378]

18. Actually...

...the poll worker merely looked at me as if she was in a daze when I asked for a paper ballot or recipt. She was clearly confused by such a simple request.

[ChickMagic]

25. Oh. My bad.

Still, you would have been denied.

[deaniac21]

19. I asked for a moist clay tablet and a sharp stick. They told me

I wasn't wearing the proper cuniform uniform.

[unpossibles]

22. BWAHAHA!

[SCDem]

23. I was an assistant poll manager yesterday in SC elections

We have paper ballots if someone requests one.