"There hasn't been a lot of people yet, but the rush will come soon, you know, when everyone gets off of work," said German Interpreter/Translator/Tutor Elke Schofield at 4 pm today.
Elke was standing by the entry way of the South Hill Elementary School polling place waiting to direct incoming voters to their District's voting area.
As I was chatting with her about how I had never used a voting booth, asking if anyone had trouble, she said "Oh, no they are quite simple, no one has asked for help."
While she was explaining the process to me, I couldn't help but peak around the corner at a separate room just off of the voting lobby. She must have caught my inquiring eye: "But this one in here, this is a bit more complicated." She led me into the room with a huge black machine that was hooked up to a computer.
This machine was one of the 43 ballot-marking devices (BMDs) from Sequoia - or electronic voting machines - that were placed in different polling areas of Tompkins County for this year's election. (This is the last year for the old-fashioned lever-voting machines to be used in New York State).
"Voters get a maximum of 3 minutes when using those machines (pointed to lever machines) , but this electronic machine can take up to 15 to 20 minutes to cast a vote," exclaimed Schofield.
"We have to have one here because of the disabled persons that come to vote, but anyone is allowed to use this if they want to. Thank God no one has, though," continued Schofield.
Schofield's frustration came from the intense 30 page manual that came with the machine. There were a series of steps within this manual telling her exactly how to operate the BMD, including how to punch in the series of codes.
She was one of the Tompkins County Board of Elections trainees that had 1 hour of training back in March to learn about the BMDs. But it didn't seem like enough for her due to the long process it takes to set-up and use the machines.
"I can't even imagine an elderly person or young person trying to figure this out let alone a disabled person," Schofield expressed her concern about the new voting machines.
Earlier today, the Ithaca Journal had a brief blurb mentioning some unhappy voters with the new voting machines. However, the October 27th issue of Tompkins Weekly gave several accounts of disabled voters who were more than happy with the BMDs.
As I thanked Elke for her generosity of showing me around the polling area, she said "Come back next year and we will have all of those new machines."
I guess we'll have to wait and see what the future will bring of the electronic voting machines. So savor the feeling of pulling that lever, because next year it's out with old and in with the new.
Check out the process of the BMD machine described by Schofield and a brief video of the detailed manual:
-Jillian Rubin
No comments:
Post a Comment