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Primary Day Poll: Old Lever Voting Machines Vs. Scanners
By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 14, 2010
Modified Sep 14, 2010
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By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 14, 2010
Modified Sep 14, 2010
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Today's primary vote with the new scanner-style voting machines has gotten off on a very bad start. While some voters had no problems at all (thanks to poll workers who were present and/or knowledgeable about the new system), some other voters had terrible experiences—like machines not even set up or the polling places not opening on time. In fact, Senator Chuck Schumer apparently had a meltdown at his Park Slope polling place and Mayor Bloomberg called it a "royal screw-up."
However, Dan Wallach, an associate professor of computer science at Rice University and associate director of the voting-system research group ACCURATE, told Capital New York, “What’s happening here is just a lot of teething issues." (Teething is painful!) But Wallach was "most disturbed by is the fact that poll workers are reportedly taking ballots from voters and feeding them into the scanning machines," explaining, "That is a total violation of voter privacy. That’s not supposed to happen... The poll worker shouldn’t be helping. The voter should be able to deal with it. The act of shoving the paper into the scanner—it’s no more difficult than shoving a piece of paper into fax machine. It’s the first time for everybody, and there are issues.”
Still, some people want the lever machines back. What about you?
Tagged
democratic process
election 2010
lever voting machine
Politics
primary
scanner voting machine
voting machine
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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