Beyond “Dangling Chads” And Back Again!
Posted by Tom Remington on August 26, 2008
Will any of us forget watching the poll workers in Florida on television with magnifying glasses, sweat running down the sides of their faces, making every effort to determine the “intent” of the voter with the dangling chads in the 2000 presidential election?
Florida was immediately thrust into the spotlight in many ways. Florida became the laughing stock of many in America as people laughed and scorned us because we were too stupid to vote, didn’t know how to count, etc. But that was all taken care of with millions and millions of dollars, right?
Well, maybe not! I just went and voted in another Florida primary election - mostly local campaigns for property appraiser, school board and county commission. My how things have changed since 2000.
I grew up in a tiny village in Western Maine. Total population of Bethel was and still is around 2,500 people. It is in Bethel where I cast my first ballot after turning 18. Thirty-eight years ago, I walked into the only polling station the town had, the fire station, was handed pieces of paper and a pencil (the kind you might get for keeping score at the local golf course) and was told to vote for only one and make sure I filled in the little box completely while not going outside the lines. This was surely a test of my hand/eye coordination and my fine motor skills. Somehow, I knew I could do it if I just concentrated. Thank you Crayola!
I don’t recall any poll worker back then ever having to pick up a magnifying and glass and try to decipher the intent of any voter. The truth be known, many such polling places never counted all the ballots. When a race was clearly decided, it didn’t much matter. Divide the votes proportionately and head on home for a hot toddy before heading off to bed.
As time went by, I recall people talking about how it was time for little towns like Bethel to “get with the times”, spend some money and buy “modern” voting equipment. One of the reasons was to help prevent voter fraud and as another means of ensuring that all votes counted and poll workers weren’t “cooking the books”.
Bethel, to my knowledge, has never changed in the methods they have used to cast ballots. I take that back. I think there has been one change. The box has evolved to an oval perhaps because some study revealed the oval required fewer fine motor skills to fill in than a square or rectangle.
Florida, on the other hand, could not ever again be subject to such primitive means of voting. Never again was Florida to be humiliated with dangling chads, ridiculed on every television station from Miami to North Pole, Alaska.
The state forked out millions of dollars in order to go hi-tech. So hi-tech that we had the best (or so they said) polling equipment available on the market. I voted a few times using this equipment but it seems that this very expensive gear was not fool proof and once again voters began to complain.
This morning when I walked into the polling station, the first thing I was handed, this was actually outside the front door, was a pamphlet that explained why we had once again changed the method for casting ballots.
No, we didn’t return to the punch-card system that produced the chads. We returned to those so-called dark ages. The same dark ages little old Bethel, Maine is still living in. I was handed a very large paper ballot, complete with bright red “security envelope”.
But get this! Before I could go into the booth and vote, I was handed a piece of paper. At the top of this paper was some kind of sticker that the poll worker where I checked in had placed at the top. I had to first demonstrate that I knew how to fill in this large oval with a black ink pen they gave me. Once that was done, I had to sign the paper which was acknowledgment that I was explained how to color an oval. As I giggled, I heard the poll worker mutter something about I wouldn’t believe how many people don’t understand what it is they are supposed to do.
So into the booth I went. I donned my glasses and commenced coloring in my favorite circles, hoping I would get all the answers right! I remembered my first days of voting and concentrated really hard to stay inside the lines. It was a snap…….I think!
Once completed, I proceeded to another area where I had to give back my bright red security envelope for some other voter to use and then cast my ballot by inserting it into a machine that read the colored ovals.
Being who I am and also unable to resist the urge, I asked the gentleman sitting there, “How do I know it counted all the ones I intended to vote for?”
Silence!
Afterthought: I wonder in what dusty room somewhere sit the thousands of very expensive, hi-tech voting machines that would guarantee no more dangling chads?
Tom Remington
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[...] Tom Remington put an intriguing blog post on Beyond âDangling Chadsâ And Back Again!Here’s a quick excerptThirty-eight years ago, I walked into the only polling station the town had, the fire station, was handed pieces of paper and a pencil (the kind you might get for keeping score at the local golf course) and was told to vote for only one … [...]
August 26th, 2008 at 10:40 am