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Thursday, October 30, 2008

Voting Early

I decided to vote today. It took 30 minutes, the longest I've ever waited. Of course, everyone who wants to vote now until Tuesday goes to one place. The Alaska ballots are pretty easy. All the information is on the page and you just fill in the circle next to the candidate you want. My mother's California ballot was much more difficult. All the names and ballot measures are listed in a booklet. It has numbers for each candidate.
Then you have to go to this computer card and blacken the right number.
This shouldn't be so difficult for the designers to figure out. The California ballot introduces a lot more opportunity for the voter to make a mistake than does the Alaska ballot. And hand counting - should that be necessary - is easier, particularly if the voter didn't do it quite right. Making it computer friendly should NEVER sacrifice voter friendly.

2 comments:

  1. I have never voted so I don't know our system. I saw a comedy of electronic voting in The Daily Show like a year ago. It was quite funny.

    ReplyDelete
  2. There should be two regular early voting places--

    Div of Elections near the Sears Mall and City Hall of Anchorage. Div of Elections should be open on Sat and Sunday, too, but fewer hours than today.

    I could be wrong but I think early voting is not allowed on Monday.

    http://www.elections.alaska.gov/avo08_general.php

    ReplyDelete

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