I wish I could say that I had such an easy time voting on the new computer based ballots.
Allthough I live in downstate Illinois, the very first thing I was confronted with was choosing the language I wished to vote in. This sickened me so much that I almost walked away as a disenfranchised voter right then and there! IMHO if you cannot read English then you have no business voting to begin with..but anyway on with the meat of what happened to me yesterday.
I waited less than a minute in line and when it was my turn I requested a pub ballot and was given a booklet containing a ballot and a card that resembled an ATM card.
I walked over to the voting machines and followed the directions I have been given. Then it was time to vote. Seems good right?
Well, guess what, the first vote to cast that came up was for governor. Still sounds proper right? Till I read the name that is. It was Rod Blogajevich!!!!! The one person I want to see voted out in the coming general election is the name I see! Talk about disenfranchised!
I scrolled thru several pages trying to figure out was going on and I came to the conclusion that I had been given a Democratic ballot instead of a Pub ballot.
I decided to speak up and get this dealt with. I must give credit to the staff that was working the polling place. They really tried to figure out the best way forward.
They decided to spoil my original ballot and create a new one for me to start over. I suppose that is the best thing to do but I cannot help but to think that my vote is somehow tarnished...if it really gets counted at all.
I also found myself wondering how many folks this happens to that do not realize they have the wrong ballot. I am left feeling like this is how the Dems seek to keep control over Illinois...you know the other Illinois that exists outside Chicagoland area.
The polling place staffmember that helped me thru the difficulty told me that when they enter which ballot you are to receive the DEM and the PUB selections are right next to each other and that is prolly how the mistake happened. Now I don't know about you folks, but to me, that seems like planned mistakes engineered into the system that very easily could have been engineered out of it.
I had high hopes about the new voting machines, but I must say, I am seriously disappointed by what I experienced yesterday.
re: "They decided to spoil my original ballot and create a new one for me to start over"
The perfect recipe for fraud. It is the electronic "hanging chad". In the precincts where the machines didn't work, or where the judges didn't know how to work the machines (eg Chicago Public School educated judges) those allegedly "spoiled" ballots can now be the debate over the "intent" of the voter.
Whoever controls those spoiled ballots wins for County Board Pres. Thus, there is a motive in not having the machines work, and in not properly training judges in how to work the machines, and in having a lousy Public School system.