The Cincinnati Beacon - Tuesday Morning Disenfranchisement: The Ballots Are Already Screwed Up In Kennedy Heights

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Tuesday Morning Disenfranchisement: The Ballots Are Already Screwed Up In Kennedy Heights

This rainy Tuesday morning in Kennedy Heights, I woke up to participate in the Democratic process. Unfortunately, when I arrived, I discovered that no one was exactly sure how to use the new process—and further the technology was not working properly. And, I discovered that, in America, the Vote is no longer anonymous—because when the optical scan machine doesn’t read your ballot properly, you must submit it in an envelope which includes identifying information. Another election day in the free world!

First, the elderly woman working the poll was having trouble tearing the two-paged ballot precisely along the perforation. Her rips were a little rough. No one really thought anything of it at the time, but turns out those imprecise rips along the perforation could be all it took to ruin the chances of several ballots from being counted this morning.

(On a side-note, we wouldn’t need to rely on mostly retired people to run the polls if Election Day was a holiday, like it should be.)

Here was the procedure: I showed my ID, signed my name, had my name checked off another list, had my ballot number recorded, and then was directed to the booth. I spent time filling out my ballot—Fitrakis for Governor, Kettler for Secretary of State—and then stepped to the Optical Scanning Machine.

I inserted my ballot, and it was kicked back out as unreadable.

I tried again.

The leading poll volunteer came over. She wanted me to make sure I had only voted for one candidate per race. I showed her my ballot, saying I didn’t mind if she saw my votes—just so she could know with certainty that I know how to fill in bubbles.

I tried again. Nothing.

Another woman came over. She actually suggested that perhaps my ballot was not being accepted because I failed to vote in all the races. I quickly clarified—no one can force someone to vote in a race if neither candidate is any good.

So I stepped to the side and we tried the woman behind me. Same story. The woman behind her? Same story. The woman behind her? Page one got accepted! But page two did not. Now a new emergency: what to do when only one page gets sucked into the machine?

By now, three poll volunteers were gathered around the growing line of people whose ballots would not go into the machine. Someone remembered the envelopes for ballots that won’t get accepted. The woman who had only one page rejected went first. The enveloped asked for the computerized error code, but no one was exactly sure, since the screen had already reset.

I looked closely, and realized that the ballot had about eight bar codes on it—one in each corner, on each side. Due to the roughly torn edges I mentioned before, one of the bar codes in one of the corners on one side had a bar slightly torn through it. I asked if I could see the ballots of the others waiting around me. Looks like we found the culprit! The elderly lady not able to tear in a perfectly straight line was perverting our Democracy!

I got my envelope, folded my ballot, and gave it back to the volunteer. She proceeded to go to the registry to get my ballot number—which is listed on the sheet where I signed my name—so she could write the number on the front of the envelope. “Now everyone can know who I voted for?” I asked. She laughed. It’s not like I could have expected an answer. So much for the power of the anonymous vote! If the recorded ballot number next to my name did not match the bar-codes should someone wish to find out for whom I voted, surely the ballot number next to my name and on my envelope would seal the deal!

This evening, at the Board of Elections, I will be looking for them to be manually opening all those envelopes and counting, by hand, my votes and my neighbors’ votes before announcing the winners.

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says:
07 Nov 2006 at 07:10 am | #

Saw a sign this morning. You can report problems with voting to 1-866-OUR-VOTE. When I called, I was the third person in about ten minutes from HamCo, and he was getting ready to call the BOE!

anonymous says:
07 Nov 2006 at 07:32 am | #

Dean,
They could have voided the ballots and allowed you all to vote again ...

funnelcake says:
07 Nov 2006 at 09:45 am | #

I hope you did not fold the ballot to fit it in an envelope.

There is a documented issue with the the Hart Intercivic escan vote counter where if a fold overlaps a box it will miscount the vote.

The solution of course is to manually count all ballots with folds in them. But this was discovered in Bolder, CO during their testing. In this testing it miscounted 7 out of 429 of their test ballots. (I guess it all depends on where you fold the paper & where the blocks are in relation to the most common folds.)

See this article

http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=6139

Or google the words: Intercivic escan fold

Better hope that the hamilton county board of elections are aware of this issue given how many people are doing mail in ballots.

funnelcake says:
07 Nov 2006 at 09:46 am | #

P.S. what’s been up with the website for the past few weeks. I’ve been getting database errors & no page loads up the wazoo. It’s been kind of hard to get on.

What time did you call? Mine was at 8:10am! says:
07 Nov 2006 at 10:27 am | #

My story goes along the same path as the Dean’s, but I was not the lucky person whose ballot would not pass.

I arrived at 7:10am at precinct N in Green Township. It’s a church and so I was able to enter the building and keep dry, but once I turned down the hallway I was met with a line about 8 people deep in the hallway outside the polling room.

I waited in that line for 10 minutes before there was any movement. Finally, a lady came out and the line moved along fairly steadily in that method for about 15 minutes. I never did find out what the holdup was for the first delay, but I was front row balcony for the second.

As I finally got to the door I found out there were three other lines to wait in ahead of me.

The first was the line to check ID’s and sign the book. The second was the line for a polling booth. The third was the line to put your ballot in the scanning machine.

I was able to observe all this for quite some time because as I got to the door, a lady approached the scanning machine and her first page went through fine, but the second did not.

Now you’d think they’d have a procedure on a little piece of paper somewhere for dealing with this. Sadly, no such item seemed to exist at precint N.

What did happen was that each poll worker tried valiantly to get that second one to go in. They tried over and over and over and over. They scanned it for being filled out incorrectly. They too tossed out the question about whether or not it was completely filled out. That was answered promptly by one of the other poll workers who stated that this was not necessary and that it must be a problem of marking outside the squares.

Squares were checked by no less than three of the four poll workers so now at least three people, other than the lady who was a lot more patient than I think I could stand at the moment, knew her votes.

Finally they decide that this will go in a special envelope and be inserted in a slot on the side of the ballot scanner and that this will be the procedure for all future such problems.

There you go folks. Four people just created their own policy for running an election.

Of course that doesn’t even touch on the gigantor size ballot we mark on that can be read from 10 feet away by anyone with decent sight. A coworker of mine was affored a legal size folder in his precinct so that no one could see his votes. So once again the voting procedure was changed by the local poll workers.

Millions of dollars and 6 years since the debacle of Florida in 2000 and we still can’t get this F*@&!^$ thing right! After having all that time to make this actually work and failing, if anyone votes Blackwell they are either an unconvicted co-conspirator, just plain evil, an anarchist or barely possessing the brainmatter to keep their lungs going, let alone voting!

Nukegal says:
07 Nov 2006 at 10:33 am | #

Things are getting very heated in the 32nd House Race.

Dale had a bit of a temper tantrum this morning at Bloom Elementary School in the West End with the legally placed Hale Yes yard signs. The volunteer poll worker had to argue with him to get the signs back.

His brother Joe Mallory, who should probably be busy doing his so called job at the Board of Elections has been grabbing yard signs outside of polling places in College Hill. The other man in black with Joe Mallory was Dan Phenicie, who had yet to surface in this campaign. Interesting to see that Dan hasn’t grown up much since the Primary election in May.

The worst of it is a Hale Yes volunteer was harassed in the St Marks Christian Church parking lot when someone drove up and yanked literature out of her hands.

Pretty juvenile activities from a family with such a long political history. I hope Ms Fannie can rein her sons in before someone gets hurt.

funnelcake says:
07 Nov 2006 at 10:48 am | #

http://www.hamilton-co.org/boe/ is buckling a bit under the strains for some reason today.

More up than stalled. But it may cause issues for those looking up their poll location if someone hits it at the wrong time.

Wet Westsider says:
07 Nov 2006 at 12:27 pm | #

Looks like we aren’t the only ones with Issues today! Stevie Chabot didn’t have proper ID with him today. And ya think he’d want to be elected and vote for himself huh? Even though we all know that comb-over, they sent him home to get proper ID! Good polling volunteer! He came back mad as hell.
Earlier in the day he was asked if he knew Chris Finney. He smiled and said “Yes, he’s my friend.” When asked if he would do a “full Finney” for me- he said that isn’t funny. Least he could have done is make a domestic diva’s day! I’d say Stevie isn’t having a good day!
Also Price Hill Chili was filled with Pick a Candidate at lunchtime. Poor Sam was cringing at all the Democrats.

Philip J. Fry says:
07 Nov 2006 at 01:23 pm | #

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. If I was too stupid to vote, I’d feel disendranchised, too…

says:
07 Nov 2006 at 01:57 pm | #

I didn’t realize that liberals like the Dean made fun of retired poll workers who are trying to do the best they can. Life isn’t perfect and no one this morning set out to purposely disenfranchise you. You are beyond belief in your righteousness. That is why I can’t stand people like you. Get a life!!!!!!!!

Anona says:
07 Nov 2006 at 02:24 pm | #

How do we know that the scanner is picking up the candidates we voted for and not changing them ... where is the receipt?

Sure, the sheet I scanned is the receipt but how do I know that the scanner actually accepted my vote?

White Power says:
07 Nov 2006 at 02:28 pm | #

If Repubs lose nobody will be crying about being disenfranchised. It is only sore losers like Nancy Pelosi and Al Gore that resort to such puerile behavior.

says:
07 Nov 2006 at 02:28 pm | #

Cathy Smith,

I could also be making fun of the ballot manufacturers, who made the bar codes so close to the edge that it invited mistakes. Or the culture of our nation that does not demand Election Day to be a holiday.

Get a grip!

Phillie Fry says:
07 Nov 2006 at 02:32 pm | #

Phillip, your post doesn’t make any more sense than the last time you posted it. Who on this blog said they weren’t voting? I think some are only voting for ant-war candidates which limits your choices a great deal.

Cathy, your post sounds a little self righteous. Don’t judge all liberals by one persons comment and we won’t judge you by Rush Limbaughs ignorant comment about a man with a serious disease. There are clearly problems with our elections in Ohio. While the poll workers aren’t to blame for problems with the computers, they could be better trained and the Dean’s point about making voting days a holiday is excellent.

Ken Blackwell and the GOP worked hard to disenfranchise African Americans in 2004 and there are problems going on across the state of OHIO right now. This is our democracy and there are serious problems that the Dean has pointed out. Save your self righteous outrage for those that are disenfranchised. We know life isn’t perfect and either is our democracy, but it isn’t acceptable for problems like this to occur in certain areas. We desreve better than “life isn’t perfect”. We deserve a non-partisan, transparent process that isn’t controlled by private partisan companies with secret software and partisan officials overseeing races they are in.

This isn’t acceptable and it’s unAmerican to accept massive disenfranchisement. Bring the troops home and bring democracy to Ohio. Why don’t we have international election observers like other countries?

says:
07 Nov 2006 at 02:46 pm | #

Anona , when in the past have you ever gotten a “receipt” for voting?

says:
07 Nov 2006 at 02:51 pm | #

What is anyone supposed to do with a receipt anyway? Stand in line to turn it in upon the event of a manual recount?

The whole thing is screwy.

Wet Westsider says:
07 Nov 2006 at 02:53 pm | #

Can’t leave this one alone.

For years and years I have had the same little old ladies as my poll workers. Each years there is a plea asking for volunteers. Maybe it is time for those of us under the age of 50 to just take a vacation day off of work and do something important such as run a voting poll. It isn’t hard. Have enough coffee and drinks for the day, take bathroom turns and someone bring the homemade cookies or a cake. Turn away Steve Chabot for not having ID, and we can deal with technology a bit easier.
These people have given us use of their basements and their patriotic hearts for years. Maybe it is time that we give back something? If enough of us volunteer, then we could make it 1/2 day committments and not a full 13 hour day.

Is it time for us to step up to the plate?

says:
07 Nov 2006 at 02:55 pm | #

Yes, it IS time for more of us to step up the plate. And it is also time for our culture to help us do it. Not all of us have the ability to take easy days off work. We all have different circumstances.

Government agencies should close on Election Day first. Then other institutions should follow suit, like schools.

We should promote civic participation, and then we just might get more!

Bearman says:
07 Nov 2006 at 03:55 pm | #

The simple answer is to hold elections on Saturdays...open the polls a little later and keep them open a little later.

You will get more volunteers and probably a better turn out.

Brinkmans a dick says:
07 Nov 2006 at 04:18 pm | #

White asshole, if the Republicans lose that would be consistent with the polls. They have reigned over the most corrupt and lazy congress in our history. They’ve shredded the constitution they swore to uphold, they spent our childrens money like druken sailors, lost two wars and a city. They made torture, spying on US citizens and secret gulags legal. So of course people expect them to lose.

If you weren’t so stupid and looked at the facts you’d know that Al Gore won the election. Read CNN analyst Jeffrey Toobins “Too close to call” or the US Civil Rights Commision report or The BBCs Greg Palasts reports and you’ll know. Or you can just continue to be an uninformed racist asshole.

Cathy Smith says:
07 Nov 2006 at 05:04 pm | #

Dean, excuses, excuses. Blame the ballot manufacturers, blame the world. Blame George Bush because election day is not a national holiday. I voted at Kilgoure school this year and every year. The poll workers are very competent ( even though they may be over 65). Admit it. You are a crybaby and even though the democarats are ahead, you have to project your possible disenfranchisement on a Republican senior citizens.

If one of your candiddates is not sucessfull, you will be blaming this poll worker. You are a loser and a malcontent!

OH Hell says:
07 Nov 2006 at 06:01 pm | #

Corporate America had to make a decission to give us MLK or President’s Day. We can’t have both and then there is the day after Thanksgiving. If we even attempted to ask for an erection- oops- election day- they would flip and start having kittens.
Also today is a legal day to fly your flag. As is Saturday. Veterans Day.

formerly f says:
07 Nov 2006 at 08:41 pm | #

Brinkmans a dick says:
07 Nov 2006 at 06:18 pm

remember folks the beacon doenst allow off topic personal attacks

oh wait yeah they do nevermind

White Power says:
07 Nov 2006 at 09:14 pm | #

I’ve no doubt that The Dean had an easy time getting off work. I like how we wants everyone else to take the day off and join him in an idle life.

says:
07 Nov 2006 at 10:41 pm | #

Cathy Smith,

A similar event regarding ballot and machine problems happened in Oakley today too. Dean is right on with the obnoxious voting procedure. A retiree poll worker was not aware of the precise way one had to rip off a ballot, causing frustration and confusion for many voters and poll workers. I don’t blame the poll workers lack of ballot ripping skills, but instead the flawed system of standing in line to check in, waiting to receive ballot, waiting to get into a voting booth, then waiting to scan the large multiple page, multiple side ballot. Then of course, waiting for multiple poll workers to meet and discuss what to do when ballots would not read correctly.

White Power says:
07 Nov 2006 at 11:01 pm | #

If you weren�t so stupid and looked at the facts you�d know that Al Gore won the election. Read CNN analyst Jeffrey Toobins �Too close to call� or the US Civil Rights Commision report or The BBCs Greg Palasts reports and you�ll know. Or you can just continue to be an uninformed racist asshole.

Oh CNN and the BBC! Well why didn’t you say so? I’m sure you got your 04’ election recap from RfK Jr. and Rolling Stone.

You are a yellow-bellied quisling hellbent on weakening American’s defenses. You and your ilk are the second coming of Alger Hiss. Please stop aiding and abetting America’s enemies. And please stop acting like you have more education than me. For your own education I suggest you read up on the Verona Project. It is all about you traitors.

P.S. John Kerry came back from Vietnam and admitted to committing “atrocities” in Vietnam. I saw the hearing on videotape. Why do you support self-confessed war criminals?

White Power says:
07 Nov 2006 at 11:06 pm | #

BTW, I’m sure you were overjoyed to see Jimmy Carter and Ortega all buddy-buddy. Jimmy doesn’t care about human rights violators when they are communists. Thank God we have that fraud monitoring elections.

Jimmy’s buddy Andy Young is a piece of garbage.

alfalfa says:
07 Nov 2006 at 11:15 pm | #

Pathetic. A couple of posters here got it right - quit complaining, take a vacation day if you have to, and volunteer to work the polls - the BOE has dozens of positions needing staffing every single election. Wanting your ‘culture’ to allow you to participate is an infantile rationale at best - make it a holday, on a Saturday, whatever - the same excuses will be made and the same regulars will step up and do their best to help your dead ass vote. If you’d been to a training session for this particular election you’d know that no one could be turned away from any polling place this time for any reason - even if you had voted absentee, live in another precinct, or refused to sign for any form of I.D. (all reasons in the past that would disallow you to vote) you had to be given an opportunity to vote provisionally...no one gets turned away...this straight from the mouths of the BOE reps.

That said, there are reasonable alternatives to consider, one being half-day vs. full-day shifts; a more attractive schedule might offset the need for finding twice as many bodies to recruit each time for training and poll work.

Wet Westsider says:
08 Nov 2006 at 06:31 am | #

But don’t you find it interesting how no one comes up with out of the box (yes I hate that damn corporate language)ideas on how to get new workers? Split shifts, child care, 1/2 day work allowances- and yes you are allowed to leave work to vote early- but don’t you find it interesting no one ever mentions any alternatives to the 13-15 hour days?

And according to my elderly poll workers, it would be so difficult to rip into the bar codes, they didn’t see how it was done. They even ripped a few while I was there to try.

As for the name calling- it’s over. Let’s move on to fix a broken system, help people’s vote count and stop the BS. This is a non-partisian issue. So play nice in the damn sandbox or Mom is sending someone home w/ a note!

says:
08 Nov 2006 at 06:39 am | #

Then the people at your poll had different ballots than at mine. Our bar codes were absurdly close to the tear-line.

Patriot says:
08 Nov 2006 at 10:52 am | #

"I like how we wants everyone else to take the day off and join him in an idle life.”

White Asshole, the Dean is a teacher and if you weren’t such a prick, he might give you a lesson.

“You are a yellow-bellied quisling hellbent on weakening American�s defenses.”
What do you mean?

Like going AWOL and then invading a country that didn’t attack us and wasn’t a threat?

“Please stop aiding and abetting America�s enemies.”

Like when Rumsfeld gave Hussien those weapons of mass destruction after he gassed his own people or when the CIA funded and trained Bin Laden?

“And please stop acting like you have more education than me.”

Please stop writing dumb things and I won’t think you’re, dumb.

“It is all about you traitors.”

Traitors steal elections, wreck economies, loose cities, loose wars, shred our constitution and call real patriots, “traitors”.

“P.S. John Kerry came back from Vietnam and admitted to committing �atrocities� in Vietnam. I saw the hearing on videotape. Why do you support self-confessed war criminals?”

I didn’t support Kerry moron, and at least he admitted the “atrocities”. The current war criminal in the white house has killed over 650,000 innocent people. He’s a war criminal even though he’ll never admit it.

“I�m sure you were overjoyed to see Jimmy Carter and Ortega all buddy-buddy.”

Yes, democracy is on the move in Latin America. The people are voting out the US backed puppet regimes in Central America just like they already have in South America.

“Jimmy doesn�t care about human rights violators when they are communists.”

Jimmy does more to fight for human rights than any President in this country ever has. He is respected around the world except on Fox news and right-wing talk radio. Ortega has the support of his people and isn’t bad on human rights. The Bush administration will pretend that he, Chavez and Morales are dictators, but Chavez has p approval compared to Bush’s 0. The US backed coup failed and if we weren’t bogged down in Iraq we would’ve already invaded.

“Thank God we have that fraud monitoring elections.”

Bush is the fraud and we don’t even meet the criteria to have his organization oversee our elections. We wouldn’t be accepted into the EU just based on our bogus elections alone. Keep dreaming!

Patriot says:
08 Nov 2006 at 11:09 am | #

"quit complaining, take a vacation day if you have to, and volunteer to work the polls - the BOE has dozens of positions needing staffing every single election. Wanting your �culture� to allow you to participate is an infantile rationale at best - make it a holday, on a Saturday, whatever - the same excuses will be made and the same regulars will step up and do their best to help your dead ass vote.

Alfalfa, for a country that exports “democracy” at the end of bombs, I think we should have voting day on a weekend or holiday like every other industrialized nation. Not everybody can take a vacation day, nor should they have to. Poor people have a tougher time getting off work for a couple of hours, taking the bus, standing in longer lines. My girlfriend stood in line for 2 hours. In 04 lines were up to 8 hours long in the cold rain. That’s not acceptable.

Cathy, we have a right to complain when there are serious problems with our elections. Private partisan companies shouldn’t be allowed to secretly count the votes and there’s no way to have a manual hand recount. Partisan officials like Katherine Harris and Ken Blackwell shouldn’t be able to manipulate elections in partisan ways and get away with it.

I do like the idea of having shorter shifts for poll workers. It would be easier to get people to do it if the shifts were not so brutal.

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