Video The Vote 2008
http://www.videothevote.org/
My Personal Voting Experience
Houston, Harris County, TX
Early Voting 10/27/08
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I am videoing my vote. I am standing outside the Moody Park voting center, and I am an early voter. It is currently 5:34p.m. and the polls are supposed to close at 7:00p.m. today. It's October 27th, a Monday. I just got off from work, and I headed down here. The parking lot doesn't really seem to full. There's a lot of political signs out here, but the rule are: you're not allowed to campaign or do any electronic things inside 100 feet from the door. So I'm standing out front and the audio is probably pretty bad from the traffic going by. So, I will let you know how it goes.
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Okay, hello everybody, again. It is currently 6:00p.m. on October 27th, 2008. I just finished voting, early voting, at the Moody Park voting station, I think voting station number 2 for early voting in Harris County. It's just north of downtown Houston, TX. And everything went great. When I got in, there was about seven or eight people standing in line. There were two sign-in stations where you could give the person your voter registration card, and they would print you out a number that you had sign in on the eSlate electronic voting ballot machine. It is made by Hart Industries[should be Intercivic], and that's what they give you a little piece of paper, to take to the voting machines. There were, I think, 18 or 20 voting machines. About half were used, so I think the bottleneck was the sign-in station, but there wasn't that big of a line. It took me about 30 minutes to get in and get out. So, that's a pretty good time for early voting. I ask one of the ladies managing the line there how busy they had been. They said that they had been pretty much busy all week. There hadn't been any really slow times, but the line was still very manageable. So, everything went great. I didn't have any vote switching or anything like that as some West Virginia people are reporting, so I didn't any problems like that. I checked all of my ballot at the end to make sure nothing got switched, and everything was great. It was a really long ballot, because there were so many judicial district decisions, but that just fine. You know, I'm all in favor of voting as much as I can, so I'm really please with my experience. And, let's see how this one turns out, if there's any more problems later in the week. Alright, bye.
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Hey guys, again. I sorry, I forgot to mention at the end after I cast my ballot and I walked back up to the front, I asked if they had any of those stickers that says "I voted" on them. But, they said that they ran out, so apparently they've been super busy, and they are coping with a lot more people than they expected. So, I just wanted to mention that one point as a sign of how successful this election is going. Alright, bye.
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SOME OTHER NOTES: The eSlate is not a touchscreen machine. It uses a rotating button at the bottom to select votes, so there is no calibration issue. However, the eSlate does not have a paper record that the voter can verify. When you push "Cast Ballot," you just have to trust that your vote was recorded in the memory chip.
"I voted?" photo grabbed from Kenn Wilson
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kchrist/1229306/
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IN OREGON:
NO LINES, NO BROKEN MACHINES, NO TIME OFF WORK, NO VOTER INTIMIDATION, NO VOTE FLIPPING, NO DEALING W/ BAD WEATHER, NO REPUBLICANS CHALLENGING YOUR RIGHT TO VOTE, NO INSUFFICIENT IDs, NO "HANGING CHADS", NO CONFUSION ON HOW TO USE A BALLOT, NO PRECINCT CONFUSION...
WHY? OUR BALLOTS ARE MAILED WEEKS AHEAD OF TIME AND WE STUDY THE ISSUES AND IDIOTS AT OUR LEISURE WHILE FILLING OUT THE BALLOT, THEN JUST SEND IT IN B4 THE 4TH. NO MUSS! NO FUSS!
THEN WE WATCH TV AND WONDER- WHAT THE_____?!
myfingerisup 3 years ago