Secret Ballots

One thing that struck me this year when I went to vote at the Franklin County Board of Elections, was the fact that the new electronic voting machines have no curtains for privacy. Apparently I wasn't the only one who was concerned about this. Voters have been complaining about the lack of privacy on the machines, but officials have hemmed and hawed about their concerns, saying that

 

voters privacy concerns about the new, unshieled machines could be eased by the way poll workers set them up.

 

That's true to an extent, but the problem that I saw at the BOE was that the machines were set up so that the voter's backs, and the screens of their machines, faced the line of others waiting to vote.  As you waited in line, you had to look away in order to NOT see the screens of the machines of the people voting. They could have been set up so that you would only catch a glimpse of other's ballots as you yourself were led to your machine to cast your vote, but they weren't. They were the exact opposite. So much for a secret ballot!  So I was pleased to see this article in this morning's Columbus Dispatch.

 

Voting booths may get curtains

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Robert Vitale

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

By the time Franklin County residents vote again next year, something more closely resembling traditional voting booths might await them.

...county elections officials said this week that they'll consider buying curtains by the May primary.

Since new electronic voting machines were introduced in February for a special election in New Albany, the biggest complaint from voters has been about privacy.

Machines used in Franklin County since 1952 had included curtains for voters to pull closed behind them.

Nearly half the voters surveyed after February's election said they worried about others seeing how they cast their ballots. In the May 2 primary, one Clintonville voter likened his experience to "voting on a chalkboard."

Of course Franklin County BOE director Matt Damschroder (I will keep my opinions of him to myself), says that purchasing those curtains would cost an estimated $1 million dollars. Really? For curtains? At any rate, he says that before buying the curtains (and protecting our votes, something that he is not notorious for doing, because it always seems to cost too much),

 

elections officials will first consider cheaper options, including going to the polls themselves to make sure machines are set up in ways to shield voters from prying eyes.

Well Damschroder, I guess you should have first gone to the polling place in your own office, and seen for yourself that they were set up in the least private way possible. Especially since this has been on ongoing concern of voters since February. Do I ask too much of those officials who are supposed to give two craps about voters and our vote?