174 online
 
Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 15 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing
General News   

Voting in Pennsylvania

By Suzanne Erb  Posted by Dave Zirin (about the submitter)       (Page 1 of 1 pages)   No comments

Dave Zirin
Message Dave Zirin
As a blind voter, I have always wanted to vote privately and independently. In the past, poll workers have assisted me — sometimes only one — and I was not confident my votes had been cast as I intended.
~
This year, a friend accompanied me to the polls. I didn’t have any trouble registering. I went over to one of the two Danaher Shoutronic paperless e-voting machines, and the poll worker said, “No no, we have the other one set up.” So I went to the machine he said was designated, and he asked me which party I wanted to vote in. I told him, and then I said that I didn’t hear the beep you’re supposed to hear when the machine is ready to be used. He said he thought he had done everything right and didn’t know what else to do.
~
Meanwhile, I was feeling around to make sure that everything was properly connected. After about five minutes of two or three poll workers trying to set things up right, and reading the manual, one of the poll workers called someone (Danaher or City Hall, I don’t know). Whoever they called asked them if they had pushed the ADA button.
~
They tried pushing the ADA button, but that didn’t work. In the meantime, thinking that I might not be able to vote at all, I began voting on the machine by telling my friend who I wanted to vote for. Before I was done, the poll workers figured out they needed to shut down the machine and start it up in ADA mode, but then they couldn’t figure out how to cancel my vote. Finally, they were able to cancel my vote, shut down the machine, and bring it up in ADA mode. I felt sorry for the poll workers. They really tried to do the right thing, but hadn’t received the necessary training.
~
Because of their diligence, I was finally able to vote independently, despite the fact that the instructions were complicated and sometimes counter-intuitive. For example, sometimes “select” meant to select the candidate. And sometimes “select” meant to de-select the candidate — depending on the context. When I was finished, I had to listen to all the selections again, even the ones with only one choice, before I cast my ballot. This took quite a while because there was no way to speed up the speech.
~
The whole process took about forty minutes — about 30 minutes to vote in eight contests. Though I was able to vote privately and independently, I voted on a paperless e-voting machine, like most other Pennsylvanians, and still have no idea whether my votes were cast as I intended.
~
Suzanne Erb
Philadelphia, PA

Rate It | View Ratings

Dave Zirin Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Dave Zirin, Press Action 's 2005 and 2006 Sportswriter of the Year, has been called "an icon in the world of progressive sports ". Robert Lipsyte says he is "the best young sportswriter in the United States. " 

Dave writes about the politics of sports for the Nation Magazine, and is author of Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games We Love

You can receive his column Edge of Sports,
every week by going to http://zirin.com/edgeofsports/?p=subscribe&id=1.

Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Writers Guidelines

 
Contact EditorContact Editor
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

Latter Day Protest? Proposition 8 and Sports

Reflections on 9-11

Fan Culture, Rape Culture, and the World Joe Paterno Made

Pure Poison: The Weekend Shooting, Ray Rice and a Culture of Violence Against Women

The Debt Owed to Eduardo Galeano

Why the NCAA Should Move the Final Four Out of Indiana

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend