New Voting Comes to Long Island - Shades of Florida

Being a technology person, I love when I get to play with new gadgets. This November I'll get to try out the new voting machines that have come to Nassau County.

Since the election of 2000, I've watched with some interest in the various technologies in voting that were being developed to avoid the troubles that happened with Florida's paper electronic voting. I was comfortable with New York's old fashioned manual lever machines. I guess, I grew up with them and remember standing on my dad's shoes as he let me in the voting booth with him, flipping the levers. So, patriotism mixed with nostalgia allowed me to believe that our machines were fine.

I knew that one day a new technology would come along. But, I was disappointed when I received my voting notification this past week and saw that we were adopting a paper ballot that would be scanned into the system. Have they forgotten all the controversy ion Florida? People complaining that the paper ballot was too hard to read? That it was too hard to pick the right boxes? Now, we're going to have everyone filling in little circles with number two pencils like an SAT exam?

I can hear the critics complaining now. People complaining that the circles were too big, too small, too confusing. They didn't read the screen. They used the wrong type of pen or pencil. They wrote in the margins, etc. I wonder if the politicians have set up this scenario on purpose in order to create questions so they can contest an outcome that they don't like.

I'm disappointed that they did not choose a more modern and less confusing system. How would I have designed it? Simple, the voting booth would be like an ATM. A person would step into the booth and the screen would show them the choices for each position. In fact, I would go so far to allow each candidate to post a photo and a small statement. This way even a candidate in an obscure local race could help people make a choice. Voters would make their choice on the screen then press complete. A summary screen would display for them to confirm their vote. They press confirm and the vote is entered. Since a paper trail is required, the voting machine would then spit out a paper receipt which could then be placed in a collection box in case a recount is needed. Meanwhile, all the votes are tallied nice and clean with little to no margin for error.

I guess we'll see how everything will run next month. Although, as with anything new I do expect to see a few glitches, I just hope that New York does not become the next Florida.