November 04, 2008

Voted

Voted

23 comments:

listie said...

I just got back from voting. Now I have to try to get some work done instead of obsessively listening to the news.

Coasting Anon said...

ooo...I did too! We use a fill-in-the-bubble technique here in Massachusetts, but I remember my mom using your type of booth when I was a kid. I was having the hardest time trying to describe it to someone and now I can just show them the picture :)

Arbitrista said...

That is a very strange voting machine you have there.

ScienceWoman said...

Wow. That voting machine is bizarre. Off to go press my touch screen vote for Obama now.

Madeleine said...

But who did the socialist workers endorse? The socialist redistributor, I guess. ;-)

kathy a. said...

yay! with luck, maybe we'll know in 12 hours or so.

BrightBoy said...

Did they let you bring the camera in or did you have to sneak it?

jo(e) said...

I had a small camera in my pocket, and I took it out after I was already in the voting booth. I wasn't deliberately being sneaky, but I doubt anyone knew I took the photo since the curtains were closed.

a/k/a Nadine said...

Yay! I love our voting machines.

Kait W. said...

Apparently Connecticut now uses a scantron thing where you bubble in your vote. Weird.

Where's Nader, Bob Barr, etc.?

Zhoen said...

Voted early, my pointless vote for Obama in this infra-red state.

Still. One more straw on the elephant's back.

susan said...

I just love that you brought your camera with you!

Twice said...

I miss those. I voted for Bill Clinton on one in 1992 when I was in grad school over near your part of the country.

Overeducated Twit said...

Wow! So many candidates! I'm jealous.

Unknown said...

Such a great shot!

Sarah Sometimes said...

our voting machines are along the same lines as yours, although you don't see a red arrow come down when you make your vote. But you do have to switch a little lever. and the you pull the big red lever to open up the curtains when you're done. I love the clunkiness and physicality of it. And, by the way, HURRAY!!!! I'm writing at the other end of the day, full of relief and joy.

Anna said...

What a confusing looking machine!

I have to admit, I'm really happy with our old fashioned paper ballots here in Canada. I love technology, but I don't trust voting machines. I know only to well how easy they are to tamper with.

Lomagirl said...

I am completely confused by your voting machine. It looks like Obama is Democrat and Working Families and Socialist, and McCain is Republican and Conservative and maybe Working Families, too.
Hmmmm. Last time I voted I marked next to the name and picture of my candidate on a big piece of paper and put it in a cardboard box.

Kathy Rogers said...

Gotta join the chorus of WTFs over that machine.

Oh, wait, I'm the only one to say "WTF."

jo(e) said...

It's really a very simple machine. You pull the little tab down for the candidate you want ... and it shows a red arrow.

Then when you've made all your selections, you pull a big lever, which registers your vote and opens the curtain.

I like the satisfying noise it makes.

Anonymous said...

@ Lomagirl:

Jo(e)'s allows cross-endorsement of candidates. This means that multiple parties can "nominate" or endorse the same candidate with the candidate receiving the sum total of votes across all the nominated party lines.

So, yes, as you observed Obama was nominated by both the Democrats and the Working Families Party, while McCain was nominated by the Republican Party and Conservative Party.

In national elections, the cross-endorsement doesn't mean much but in statewide and local elections it can be a complicating factor.

Historically, the Conservative Party has been to the right of the more moderate state Republican Party and continues to maintain a respectable enrollment. Once in office, the third party (say, Conservative) can claim influence (and some public support for their agenda) by pointing to all the individuals that voted for the candidate on the non-major party line.

Again, there is no cost to voters voting for a cross-endorsed candidate (say, Obama or McCain) on a third party line since your vote will always count towards the candidate's sum total. What you're expressing is your support for the candidate and, to some extent, the third party's platform/agenda.

Lomagirl said...

Thank you for explaining that. I did not know things worked that way. I figured smaller parties just got lost, like Nader and Barr.

Michael Campbell said...

I stared at that ballot machine quite a while. It reminded me of the curtain scene in the Wizard of Oz. Looks like fun to play with.
Two of the three companies that produce electronic ballot machines are based in Nebraska, but we still vote the cave man way, with a pencil.