Getting NetSmart - Voting: A lesson in technology

Voting: A lesson in technology
Voting is no easy task when everything is paper-based

Network World, 11/13/02

At our local voting polls, we still use paper ballots. We put the ol' pen to paper and connect two arrows showing our voting intent. The most the poll volunteers have to do for us is to give us a new pen when the ink runs out of the old ones.

However, throw them a curve ball and suddenly, the old system seems a bit rusty. For instance, though I registered to vote at town hall last year, the polls had no record of my voting status. They checked several printed lists - I saw them rifle through at least three while I was standing there. They found my name somewhere on a census list, but still insisted I was not a "registered voter."

Next thing I knew, there were walkie talkies being summoned. Two women started talking back and forth over them - one was in front of me, the other at town hall a few blocks away. She said she would look for my registration, but after a few minutes of dead silence during which she "turned the office upside down" she was unable to locate any record of my existence - not even the census, which I clearly filled out because I was on the printed out record the woman standing in front of me had. She suggested I go down to town hall and talk with the town clerk who handles the voting issues for the town.

So off to town hall I went and found the woman I had heard through the walkie talkie. She offered me a new voter registration card to fill out, but said I still couldn't vote that day. I was peeved, to say the least. I asked her if she was sure that there were no loopholes that allowed a person who thought their record was misplaced to vote. She was annoyed at my implication that her office, which was teeming with paper on all the desks and out the filing cabinets, would have lost my registration. I said there had to be another option. She recommended I call my old voting location and see if I was still on the records there. I asked if she could look that up on one of the computers around the office. She said she did not have that information available.

So, while she was standing there, I called my old town hall to find out my status. They, too, had no record of me. Great, I was in limbo.

I was so frustrated until a friend recommended I contact the Secretary of the Commonwealth's office. I tried to locate information on the Web site, but had no luck. Then I tried several times to get through via phone, only to have it ring non-stop. An hour later, I finally got through to the office and they told me there was indeed a loophole and explained how to use it.

I called town hall back later that day to let them know what I had found out and to have them communicate this to the polling station so that when I got there, I wouldn't run into the same problem. She was "thrilled" that I could indeed vote and said she would fire up the walkie talkie and let them know.

When I returned to the polling station later that evening, the same woman that was there in the morning was working the "special cases" table. I walked over to her and she looked surprised. I told her I had talked to the Secretary of the Commonwealth's office and town hall and that I was able to vote. She looked at me as if I was speaking another language when I told her what the term for it was. She quickly rushed to a FAQ sheet she was given to read up on how to handle the case. I asked if she was contacted by town hall and she said no.

She handed me a ballot to fill out and when I was finished, she simply put it in a pile by itself. Something tells me it's going to end up in the same place as my voter registration - the ether somewhere.

My point in this story is that technology could have helped save everyone time and effort. First of all, my voter registration should have been done online or at least at a computer terminal in town hall. Leaving such things to paper has its risks.

Second, when I got to the poll, there should have been electronic databases to cull for my registration and resident status. The fact that two printed versions were at odds with each other only led to more confusion.

Third, there should have been a knowledgebase that the volunteers could have used to check on alternatives for me to vote. I should not have had to traipse down to town hall and then wait on the line for the Secretary's office to help out. They should have all been connected.

Fourth, I should have been able to somehow electronically denoted my ballot as a specific type without having to let it sit out in the open separate from the other ballots. If the voting booths were digital, there could have been a checkbox to mark for special circumstances.

Ironically, my neighbor walked in right after me and had the same exact problem. I saved her a whole lot of hassle and felt better when her ballot joined mine on the lone pile.

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