EAC - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Name : | Noel Runyan
Organization : | N/A
Post Date : | 9/30/2005
General Comments
Comment : | Voting Experience in November 2004 Election In Santa Clara County California - Using Sequoia Voting Machines by NHR (Continued) It would have taken even longer if I had been willing to wait, as prompted, until the end of each message to push the "select" button. The messages mislead some folks because they say something like, "...at the end of this message, you can press the ...". This implies that you are supposed to wait until the speech message finishes. Because the polling place was extremely small, the voting machines were too close together and not positioned to optimize privacy. While my wife was standing around, waiting for me to finish voting, she noticed that she could easily glance around and eavesdrop on the screens and ballots of other voters in the area. She feels that, for privacy reasons, the poll workers really shouldn't have allowed her to hang around in the voting booth area, while waiting for me to finish my voting. When I was finally done voting, I took a portable radio out of my pocket and turned it on, with its earphone in my ear. The Sequoia voting machine was broadcasting a lot of radio noise on the AM band. This RF noise emission represents a possible electronic eavesdropping threat to privacy. Also, I noted that none of the poll workers seemed to notice or ask what kind of electronic device I was using and for what purpose. The polling place seemed to be too lax about letting people use cell phones, palmtops, or other electronic equipment in the polling place. There should have been but were not any announcements (audible or visual) warning voters against using cell phones, cameras, palmtops, or other electronic devices in the polling place. There were 2 times when I would like to have asked for help from the poll workers. One was during the confusion I encountered from the difference between the printed sample ballot and the DRE ballot. The other time was near the end of my ballot marking, when I had a lot of trouble getting the review started and then was trying to find and change a mistake I found during the review. Unfortunately, because the poll workers would not be able to look at a visual display on my system, and didn't have any way to join me in listening to the audio output of the machine, I figured that I couldn't get much help from a poll worker (even though our head polling officer seemed very knowledgeable and helpful).