Talk Elections

And if you want to discuss your experience go ahead.

I think the idea of the optical scan is OK but my problem with it is that it's very tedious and if you screw up you have to go back to the poll worker and get a brand new ballot. The good thing is that when you feed the machine it tells you personally that your vote was good and if it is bad it kicks it back out.

In the past three elections I've used three different systems :

2000 : Punch Ballot, a bit difficult and archaic
2004 : Touch Screen, I really like this system, ease of use, ballot review, easy correction but everyone hates it.
2008 : Optical Scan system.

If I missed one let me know, I'm interested in reading what y'all use.

Other: Connect-the-arrow. It's overly confusing; my parents didn't know how to use it until I showed them.

Normal paper ballot in Canada IIRC with candidates and party listed.

France uses individual ballots for each option (12 candidates, 12 papers). You're supposed to take all 12 into the voting booth, and place your choice in an envelope. A lot just take four or five randomly, and some just take their choice. However, some voting machines were introduced in 2007 and Philippe de Villiers voted on one and didn't understand sh**t.

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My dad took like 30 and gave me the 29 remaining ballots.

Sounds terribly tedious Hash.

Touch screen electronic voting, not that voting is an issue in New Jersey

Pencil and paper.
Mark candidates in order of preference (PR-STV (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_transferable_vote) counting system).

Sample Ballot Paper (http://www.tcd.ie/Political_Science/staff/michael_gallagher/STVBallotPaper.php)

Yeah, well, it's France. Then you need to drop your envelope in the ballot box, sign your name in their log, and they say "[name] has voted".

     Optical scan, though I remember punch cards being used back in 1998.

Up until the general election this year, we primarily had to use Touch screen machines (manufactured by Diebold Inc.). Now we have the option of paper ballots that can go through an optical scanning machine, which is the option I picked. 

Paper ballots.

For federal elections, we receive two ballot papers - one for the Lower House (House of Representatives) and one for the Upper House (Senate). The HoR is based on population, with each seat being roughly equal in population, and each being a single-member district. Members are elected using preferential/IRV methods. For a ballot to be formal, the voter puts a "1" in the box next to their preferred candidated, a "2" in the box next to their next most preferred candidate, etc. Preferences must be allocated to all candidates for the vote to be counted (although the final box may remain blank). Each state has equal representation in the Senate (although the territories have less). In a normal general election (not a double dissolution), half of the Senators are up for election. Each state has twelve Senators in total. The six Senators up for election at a typical general election are each elected using STV. There are two ways to number a Senate ballot paper in order for it to be formal. The first method is commonly called "above the line" - in which a voter merely places a "1" in the box above a particular party's name, which implies that the voter wishes to allocate all preferences according to how that party allocated its preferences (each party listed above the line needs to register its preferences with the Electoral Commission). If a voter votes above the line, they can only place a "1" in the box - they cannot number more than one square. Below the line, every Senate candidate is listed (each party's candidates are in line with the party's above the line placement - so if a party is in the middle of the ballot above the line, its candidates are in the middle of the ballot below the line). The candidates are then listed in that party's preference down the page beneath the party's name. If voting below the line, a voter must number every square. There are often a large number of candidates for the Senate, which can make below the line voting an arduous task (and a risky one because of the increased chance of making a mistake).

This page has a pdf of a Senate ballot paper (since my description may have been confusing). This pdf is four A4 pages long, but the original would have been printed as one long page. http://aceproject.org/ero-en/topics/voting-operations/Senate%20Ballot%20Paper-Australia%201996.pdf/view

Like Xahar, Connect-the-arrow. We also now have two ballots due to the county races being administered under IRV.

New Zealand uses a paper ballot.
It splits vertically into two....on one side are the electorate candidates and on the other side are the different parties.
We use an orange marker pen and place a tick beside the candidate we want to represent our area in Parliament and another tick beside the party we wish to govern.When polling closes the ballot paper is ripped apart and the two votes are counted separately and the composition of Parliament is determined using the MMP system.
Note these are the only votes we cast at this time as we elect our local and regional councils a year before the General Election.

We don't elect judges.

Mexico - paper ballots. A separate ballot for each vote, so on election day in 2006 in Mexico City there were 6: President, Senate, House, City Mayor, City Councilor, District Mayor. All ballots are very clear, marked with party symbols - you don't have to be literate to figure it out, very clear design, candidates' and/or parties' names are written in very large fields, and any mark within the would count. Each ballot has to be deposited into a separate ballot box (actually, there were two polling places in the same school courtyard: first you pick-up the 3 federal ballots at the federal polling desk (they mark your id and your name on the register), go into the federal booth, mark them, drop them in federal boxes; then you repeat at the city desk/booth/boxes.

Madison County, IL: DRE w/VVPAT for early voting; optical scan (bubbles) on election day.

Germany: paper ballots...MMP system, 2 votes, manual count.

It's not a touch screen, at least not in the traditional sense of the term. Touch screen machines have actual touch screens; Bergen County uses some ancient technology which might have passed for touch screens in the 1970s. It's more like having a smooth keyboard that lights up. It's most similar to the old lever machines, although it has a button rather than a lever.

This is a touch screen:

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This is what Bergen County uses:

() (Not my ballot/hand)

The Bergen County machines are like little keys that cause a light to light up behind your selection. They're retro-touch screen; it's not a computer screen.

Pencil and Paper.

 ESlate  (http://www.hartic.com/innerpage.php?pageid=98#)

The demo at the above URL is pretty accurate - though the scroll wheel is easier to use directly, than with a mouse.

We use both touch screen and optical scan machines. Both are available in each precinct and voters have their choice of technology. User choice often depends on the precinct judges suggestions and the relative length of lines for the two types. Early voting uses only touch screen so that the programmed card can reflect the ballot type of any voter in the county.

I used optical scan this year, in part due to the shorter line.

Optical Scan

Touch screen, the only way to accurately count votes in the 21st century.

The error rate is about the same for touch screen and optical scan. Both can have duplicate or missing machine count possibilities. However, a recount of touch screen results eliminates questions about voter intent that can exist for optical scan ballots.

I've managed to use touch screen, optical scan, punch card, and lever machines, tho not all in the same election. :D   Didn't care for the lever machines at all.  Never saw why the punch cards were so demonized.

1) is touch screen. Which is easy for people to change your vote(depends on how it is wired).
2) the absentee vote. Which is on paper and they mail it to you. That is paper and pen.

This^^

But I vote absentee.

(Copying Pencil, actually. The writing utensil provided, that is - it is perfectly legal to use another writing utensil instead.)

What is a lever machine?

Be thankful you never had to use one.  AFAIK, they're still in use only in New York.  Basically they are a mechanical version of a touch screen.   You pulled a lever to close the curtain, then you had these little mechanical switches which were supposed to be set up so you couldn't do an overvote (i.e., vote for more than one candidate in a one candidate race)  When you threw back the lever, your vote would would be tallied by incrementing a mechanical counter for that candidate and the curtain would open.  The technology goes back to the 1890's.

http://americanhistory.si.edu/vote/votingmachine.html

Pencil and paper (normal). Not sure why that wasn't listed...

Optical scan for municipal elections.

oh I am thankful. Thanks for answering my question.

Optical scan, fill-in-the-bubble variety (normal).

Trying to explain to Michiganders that connect-the-arrow is infinitely more confusing than fill-in-the-bubble is painful.

Connect the arrow, easiest system to use ever.

lever machine

eSlate

Optical scan.