I cast my ballot this evening! Positions for Alderman and School Board were all that were on the ballot here. The city bought new optical ballot-reading machines (each paper ballot was about 8 1/2 x 15!) to replace the old lever machines that were used last year. It felt a bit like I was taking a high-school test… filling out little ovals (albeit with a pen instead of a #2 pencil). Overall, I believe the paper ballot read by optical-scanning machines to be an excellent system. Very accurate (especially relative to punch-cards), much faster to count than standard paper ballots, and a (sizable) paper receipt in the event of a need to recount or examine the election.
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Does the system let you know, after you’ve submitted your card, if you’ve voted successfully? That is, if you haven’t filled out a circle properly, do you have any way of finding out?
Dave – I don’t actually know. It took my ballot no problem. If there ever were a need for a recount though, they could sort these by undervotes and overvotes and tabulate them by hand easily.
The machines I’ve used before will reject the ballot if there are over-votes (voting for too many candidates) but not under-votes (blanks). I asked if they will give a “receipt” and was told that that jeopardizes the secrecy of your ballot.
Results are tabulated quickly too.