I voted yesterday... No Political statements just asking about the method you chose on casting your ballot.

[NYCgrrl]

There was a problem at the polling place today when we went, machines were not reading some of the ballots. I was a little annoyed because the poll worker at my machine told me I was all set, it was cast and I could go, before the machine confirmed my ballot was counted successfully. I did not leave, I stayed until I saw with my own eyes it was completed.
Does make me wonder how many people she said that to and they left before the problem was discovered.
My dh and ds had to re-do their ballots but I did not.

Do you still have the 1960s machines or the updated ones. Loved entering those then brand new machines with my Mom

 

[NYCgrrl]

Correct, as I explained in my first post on this subject. The applications were for voter registration -- not ballots.

I think the investigation continued for a while, and the State Attorney's Office just closed out their case. That's why it didn't come to light previously.

Good catch for the elections officials.

Sounds like the system worked the way it was meant.

 

[Hikergirl]

Do you still have the 1960s machines or the updated ones. Loved entering those then brand new machines with my Mom

They were the updated ones.
I've never done early voting so I'm not sure what normal protocol is but today we went and checked in, then we were given a receipt that we had to take over to someone else so they could print out the correct ballot for our district. For some reason the machines were having issues reading ballots printed from one of the two stations that were there. I was lucky enough to get sent to the printer that was not having issues, but my dh and ds were sent to the one that was.
When I was filling out my ballot I was right next to the printer that wasn't working, they were taking it a part, checking the ink/toner. According to the man on the other end of the phone (from the BOE)- 20% ink left should not be an issue. I'm not sure how it got resolved, I was out of there pretty quick. My dh and ds had to get back in line but were too far back to hear anything. I assume they just changed the ink cartridge.

 

[NYCgrrl]

They were the updated ones.
I've never done early voting so I'm not sure what normal protocol is but today we went and checked in, then we were given a receipt that we had to take over to someone else so they could print out the correct ballot for our district. For some reason the machines were having issues reading ballots printed from one of the two stations that were there. I was lucky enough to get sent to the printer that was not having issues, but my dh and ds were sent to the one that was.
When I was filling out my ballot I was right next to the printer that wasn't working, they were taking it a part, checking the ink/toner. According to the man on the other end of the phone (from the BOE)- 20% ink left should not be an issue. I'm not sure how it got resolved, I was out of there pretty quick. My dh and ds had to get back in line but were too far back to hear anything. I assume they just changed the ink cartridge.

I believe this is the first year NYS has allowed early voting and relaxed the eligibility for absentee ballots. Think it took all of 30 minutes to vote this time and fortunately everyone was in a good mood despite the rain. No breakdowns that I was aware of and thank goodness for that.

 

[bcla]

There was a problem at the polling place today when we went, machines were not reading some of the ballots. I was a little annoyed because the poll worker at my machine told me I was all set, it was cast and I could go, before the machine confirmed my ballot was counted successfully. I did not leave, I stayed until I saw with my own eyes it was completed.
Does make me wonder how many people she said that to and they left before the problem was discovered.
My dh and ds had to re-do their ballots but I did not.

Depends how the ballot is printed. I’ve voted with ballots that had a stub with a serial number, but the actual ballot had no serial number. Some place have a unique number on each ballot to prevent double counting. The number isn’t supposed to be correlated with the voter to keep the vote secret.

I heard of one case where ballots were rejected when there was a printing problem with the bar code with the serial number. The ballots had to be individually reproduced, including the votes.

Depending on the system, it might be possible to r un through ballots again without worry about counting a ballot twice.

 

[Hikergirl]

I believe this is the first year NYS has allowed early voting and relaxed the eligibility for absentee ballots. Think it took all of 30 minutes to vote this time and fortunately everyone was in a good mood despite the rain. No breakdowns that I was aware of and thank goodness for that.

When we got there the line was pretty long but it was moving pretty quickly. We were one of the last groups to get in before the problems. When I was done I was outside waiting for dh and ds for about 10 minutes and the line was really long and not moving at that point. It was a nice day so it wasn't so bad, and I didn't see anyone upset about anything so that was good.

 

[Hikergirl]

Depends how the ballot is printed. I’ve voted with ballots that had a stub with a serial number, but the actual ballot had no serial number. Some place have a unique number on each ballot to prevent double counting. The number isn’t supposed to be correlated with the voter to keep the vote secret.

I heard of one case where ballots were rejected when there was a printing problem with the bar code with the serial number. The ballots had to be individually reproduced, including the votes.

Depending on the system, it might be possible to r un through ballots again without worry about counting a ballot twice.

I don't think it's correlated to the actual voter, but when I went to get my ballot the woman went through the 3 she had printed to pick mine, she matched it to the receipt I gave her. I'm assuming it has to do with the district you are in since a lot of the people aren't voting in their polling place but instead are voting in a general county one.
I don't think anyone's ballot was counted twice since they didn't even go through in the first place. Dh and ds had to get a new "receipts" to get a new ballot sheet and on that new receipt it said something like "ballot rejected" or something to that effect. I assume they have to account for why people received a 2nd printed ballot.
I was more concerned that the woman at the machine was telling people that their ballots went through and they left without confirming that was true. If they had their ballots printed from the faulty machine it is possible that their was never counted and if they left they wouldn't know. She literally told me I could leave that it went through before it actually did. Had I not been there when the problem occurred I may have just left taking her word for it, especially if I was an inexperienced voter on those machines.

 

[bcla]

They were the updated ones.
I've never done early voting so I'm not sure what normal protocol is but today we went and checked in, then we were given a receipt that we had to take over to someone else so they could print out the correct ballot for our district. For some reason the machines were having issues reading ballots printed from one of the two stations that were there. I was lucky enough to get sent to the printer that was not having issues, but my dh and ds were sent to the one that was.
When I was filling out my ballot I was right next to the printer that wasn't working, they were taking it a part, checking the ink/toner. According to the man on the other end of the phone (from the BOE)- 20% ink left should not be an issue. I'm not sure how it got resolved, I was out of there pretty quick. My dh and ds had to get back in line but were too far back to hear anything. I assume they just changed the ink cartridge.

So you has ballot printing on demand? I thought maybe that’s what we would be using until I saw it was all touchscreens. My county only has those at the central office. I believe they’re only printed if polling places run out or maybe to copy over a damaged ballot.

 

[Hikergirl]

So you has ballot printing on demand? I thought maybe that’s what we would be using until I saw it was all touchscreens. My county only has those at the central office. I believe they’re only printed if polling places run out or maybe to copy over a damaged ballot.

This place did but this is not how my normal polling place does it on Election Day. This was my first time voting early so it's the first time I have ever not voted at my regular poling place. I'm not sure if this is how it is normally done where I went today.

 

[bcla]

This place did but this is not how my normal polling place does it on Election Day. This was my first time voting early so it's the first time I have ever not voted at my regular poling place. I'm not sure if this is how it is normally done where I went today.

I was somewhat surprised, but the touchscreen machines were easy to use. I’d used one before, but it was our single machine at a regular polling location meant for disabled voters. I only chose to use it because they gave it as an option when they ran out of paper ballots. At that location I was the first voter to use it (it was maybe 2.5 hours before closing) and they were having a heck of a time trying to get it initialized. At my early voting location yesterday, the poll workers had the operation of the machine down.

Just wondering if your ballots seemed to have any sort of serial number? That’s sometimes a problem when it can’t be properly read by the scanners.

 

[dina444444]

I was somewhat surprised, but the touchscreen machines were easy to use. I’d used one before, but it was our single machine at a regular polling location meant for disabled voters. I only chose to use it because they gave it as an option when they ran out of paper ballots. At that location I was the first voter to use it (it was maybe 2.5 hours before closing) and they were having a heck of a time trying to get it initialized. At my early voting location yesterday, the poll workers had the operation of the machine down.

Just wondering if your ballots seemed to have any sort of serial number? That’s sometimes a problem when it can’t be properly read by the scanners.

When I voted last Saturday on the new machines in LA, the original ballot they gave me wouldn’t read into the machine to vote so they spoiled it and gave me a new one.

 

[Hikergirl]

I was somewhat surprised, but the touchscreen machines were easy to use. I’d used one before, but it was our single machine at a regular polling location meant for disabled voters. I only chose to use it because they gave it as an option when they ran out of paper ballots. At that location I was the first voter to use it (it was maybe 2.5 hours before closing) and they were having a heck of a time trying to get it initialized. At my early voting location yesterday, the poll workers had the operation of the machine down.

Just wondering if your ballots seemed to have any sort of serial number? That’s sometimes a problem when it can’t be properly read by the scanners.

Yes, I think the problem was the printer was having issues so the machines couldn't read them

 

[disneychick0412]

Kentucky - DH and I voted in person a couple weeks ago. Waited in line about 10 minutes. Everyone had on masks and were distanced.
How long will we have to wait to find out the winner with all the mail in ballots, instead of mostly everyone voting in person?

 

[bcla]

Yes, I think the problem was the printer was having issues so the machines couldn't read them

The touchscreen machines were configured as “ballot marking devices” and the vote is transferred to a paper printout. The marketing materials say that it can use common commercial printers, and what I saw was a fairly ordinary light duty laser printer that one might find in a home office. I have experience with these when the toner cartridge is spent. Sometimes it's just uneven toner coverage. It might have gray areas. If the drum is too worn there might be streaks. You can get these issue with inkjet too if the ink cartridge is low - especially missing lines. I've seen some printouts with barcodes that try to get around that by printing the same barcode vertically and horizontally so that that it should be readable in at least one direction. Scans go through optical recognition to pick up all this stuff.

But in my case it was just a QR code with all the information embedded. If the printer is messed up it might not be readable.

 

[Pills]

NY - First time they had early voting, so I went Tuesday. Took about 45 minutes. From what I understand, the line was ~45 minutes all week.

My daughter (in college, turned 18 this year) and my wife did absentee and sent them in mid-October.

 

[Mermaid02]

Virginia- will vote in person on election day.

 

[rlk]

NYC- voted in person last week. The whole process took less than 10 minutes.

 

[kelpricer]

PA-voted by mail in ballot. Received my email 2 days later confirming they received and recorded my vote

 

[bcla]

Do you still have the 1960s machines or the updated ones. Loved entering those then brand new machines with my Mom

Those would be the old fashioned lever machines with a curtain? Found this video. Looks like it might have been transferred from film. The weirdest thing is where a write in vote goes.

 

[bcla]

I guess there's some controversy over whether or not Texas law allows for drive-thru voting. I heard this was requested by the Harris County registrar of voters and specifically green lighted by their Secretary of State's office earlier this year.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/ne...-hear-challenge-from-Republicans-15693694.php

There have been over 125,000 ballots cast this way, but there's been a series of lawsuits (including one denied by the Texas Supreme Court last weekend) seeking to invalidate all these ballots. I'm not quite sure how they're supposed to do that unless these are paper ballots that are stored separately from the mailed-in ballots that have been processed. I looked up their mail-in ballot rules, which are that they can check them upon receipt, but at minimum need to wait until election day morning to count them. However, early voting procedures seem to depend on the county.