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Thread: Just voted in SC...this is going to be a mess

  1. #1

    Just voted in SC...this is going to be a mess

    So I just got back from voting. I am a precinct leader, and went in early to ask some questions and introduce myself. I was not happy at all with how it went. (sorry this is long...I'm kind of angry)

    1) I asked for a paper ballot, since they are required to have them on hand in case of machine failure. I was told that they cannot give out paper ballots unless the machines are down, even if you request to use one.

    2) I asked if there would be an sort of receipt either given to me or for the poll workers showing the vote totals (I already knew the answer, but still don't like it)...no.

    3) I asked if the results would be read at the precinct when the polls close. The answer was no. They take the cartridges from the machine to the election commission (the head poll worker at each precinct takes them). I asked how that was possible, since the SC constitution states that the ballots would be counted in public. The answer was that I "could see them reported on TV...that's public."

    4) When I voted, the touch screen instructions were confusing. After I selected the candidate, it asked me to press "confirm" on the screen. The next screen also said to press "confirm," and had the same button, but there was also a red flashing "vote" button on the top of the machine (not on the touch screen). The poll worker said I needed to press the "vote" button, and when I did, the screen asking me to confirm went away and only showed instructions to the poll worker saying that the cartridge must be reinserted before the next voter. I took information design classes in college, and this was not good information design.

    5) All of the poll workers were very nice except the head guy, but he was the only one who knew what was going on. The others said they were just there to mark people off the list when they came in. I voiced my concerns about not having a paper trail or physical confirmation of any sort, and here is the conversation (somewhat paraphrased):

    him: that would be ridiculous and unnecessary
    me: why can my ATM could give me a receipt and the voting machines can not?
    him: its too expensive, ridiculous, and unnecessary
    me: I work on computers 17 hours per day, and I know how vulnerable they are, and I would much rather have a paper ballot
    him: you weren't around in the 70's when poll workers had to stay half the night to count ballots and then wait another few hours for the police and election officials to confirm and seal the ballots. it is much better now. less errors when machines do it. people mess up.
    him: (wanders off)



    Alright, that's all of my vent...don't feel much better though. This guy was not very helpful, not very nice, and made me feel worse about a situation I already wasn't happy with. I'm not giving up, but I don't think there's any way that the SC primary is going to be accurate...and we'll never know for sure.

    On the plus side, I was exit polled

    GO RON PAUL!



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  3. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by perrin_for_paul View Post
    3) I asked if the results would be read at the precinct when the polls close. The answer was no. They take the cartridges from the machine to the election commission (the head poll worker at each precinct takes them). I asked how that was possible, since the SC constitution states that the ballots would be counted in public. The answer was that I "could see them reported on TV...that's public."
    That settles that then.
    We have allies many of you are not aware of. Watch the tube. Show this to your 30 and under friends. Listen to it. Even if you don't like rap, it has 2.7 million views.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmBnvajSfWU#t=0m16s

    Cut off one min early to avoid war porn.

  4. #3
    Well, one thing's for certain in South Carolina: it will be the end of the road for Fred "Comatose" Thompson.

  5. #4
    let's hope so...though it does make me happy to see his name under Ron Paul's so much

  6. #5
    with all the tech savy rp supporters cant we rig some machines for RP, thats how the republicans won and I am sure it happened in NH so its just fighting fire with fire...
    Pledge to get Ron Paul to RUN in 2012!!!RunPaulRun

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  7. #6
    How's the weather and turnout so far?

  8. #7
    I wish I knew how to fix it for Ron Paul (joking)...but I didn't have the right kind of cell phone. :P

    Weather isn't as cold as predicted, no snow or ice yet. They think that will come later in the afternoon. I was the only person there other than the poll workers and the exit poll guy when it opened.

    I'm giving the people on my list another hour or so to get up before I start calling and telling them to get their asses to the polls

  9. #8



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  11. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by OKRonPaul View Post
    How's the weather and turnout so far?
    In Anderson (Upstate) currently heavy rain and 39 degrees, expecting change over to snow by noon. Just waking up, will be putting two votes for RP in Mountain Creek Precinct shortly.

    eb
    Been a long time....

  12. #10
    You need to tell the official campaign that they are denying you paper ballots. You also shouldn't have voted on Diebold. You basically just wasted your vote.

  13. #11
    The bad weather must be on its way because it is snowing here in Louisiana. lol.

    At least you put them on guard that you are paying attention, are informed and will follow up. I don't know if that does much, but maybe they'll remember you after the polls close.... keeps them clean....???/ Just a thought....

  14. #12
    dont you just want to bitchslap the guy who said a paper trail was rediculous? id like to open hand slap him so hard that he would beg for a paper trail.
    Ron Paul Phone-Calls from Home - call people the campaign have on lists that might vote for Dr Paul.
    http://phone.ronpaul2012.com

  15. #13
    I think most of the poll workers are more likely to be lazy or incompetent as opposed to corrupt (edit, at least they are volunteering their time to do this though).

    They really do like the electronic voting because it is less work.

    They really don't see any problem with a paperless system that leaves no verifiable trail because they trust the system.

    They really do think that because they've been involved with the process for so long we newcomers are more of a bother than a blessing.

    They may have a favorite candidate but to many of them it's like having a favorite sports team, ra ra ra for the home team but if they lose oh well there's always another game.

    They are not awake.

    We need to become them, but stay awake.

  16. #14
    I am inclined to think that I wasted my vote as well, but I can't do anything about it right now, so I'm going to hope for the best until the HQ people settle down enough for me to get them a statement about my experience.

    They do know I'm paying attention, and they know I have a list of identified Ron Paul supporters here. Also, one of the poll workers is my neighbor who absolutely loves me and my daughter, and he heard the whole conversation, and would stick up for me if need be.

    Cross your fingers everyone!

  17. #15
    less errors with machines? Maybe he should look at the New Hampshire recount

    http://www.sos.nh.gov/recountresults.htm

    I know different machines... but still machines.

  18. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by perrin_for_paul View Post
    So I just got back from voting. I am a precinct leader, and went in early to ask some questions and introduce myself. I was not happy at all with how it went. (sorry this is long...I'm kind of angry)

    5) All of the poll workers were very nice except the head guy, but he was the only one who knew what was going on. The others said they were just there to mark people off the list when they came in. I voiced my concerns about not having a paper trail or physical confirmation of any sort, and here is the conversation (somewhat paraphrased):

    him: that would be ridiculous and unnecessary
    me: why can my ATM could give me a receipt and the voting machines can not?
    him: its too expensive, ridiculous, and unnecessary
    me: I work on computers 17 hours per day, and I know how vulnerable they are, and I would much rather have a paper ballot
    him: you weren't around in the 70's when poll workers had to stay half the night to count ballots and then wait another few hours for the police and election officials to confirm and seal the ballots. it is much better now. less errors when machines do it. people mess up.
    him: (wanders off)
    I don't blame you for being pissed over the lame response you were given to an appropriate question.

    Not all electronic machines are the same. The one used in my precinct does have a paper printout as a vote is selected. I still don't like these machines, however. The software can be rigged, as shown on HBO and other sources, which would still result in inaccuracies even with the paper trail.

    The only fair system--in my mind and one that has worked for so many years--is paper ballots. If people, like this jerk and others, think that supervised hand counting is too tedious and tiring, then they should be replaced with folks that take the matter more seriously. After all, we're only choosing the future leaders of our country and respective states...oh well.

    These people make me sick. Dr. Paul...Dr. Paul...we have a code blue in the voting booth!



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  20. #17
    Thanks for the support guys

    I'm off to make my Get Out the Vote calls and wake some people up.

    Keep the faith, everyone! They can't stop the revolution

  21. #18
    http://www.andersoncountysc.org/web/...erTraining.pdf

    This above link shows the set-up for the polling places. There is a Ballot Box shown along with the Voting Booths. Is the Ballot Box for paper ballots? You can vote curbside in SC which would be a paper ballot:

    CURBSIDE VOTING
    Any voter who, because of physical handicap or age (65 or older), cannot enter the polling place in which he is registered to vote, or is unable to stand in line to vote, may vote outside that polling place in the closest available parking area utilizing the vehicle in which he has driven or has been driven to the polls.

    http://www.state.sc.us/scsec/curbvot.htm

    Could this be our loophole?

    I know this is late in the game...all new to me. Haven't voted in 16 years because I don't vote for the lesser of two evils. I don't vote for evil at all.

    RonPaul2008!

    LEK

  22. #19
    LEK, are you in Anderson? After voting we will be heading to the Centerville polling location on Whitehall to sign wave and hand out lit. Kinda hoping the rain turns to snow before we go out and get soaked.

    eb
    Been a long time....

  23. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by perrin_for_paul View Post

    him: that would be ridiculous and unnecessary
    me: why can my ATM could give me a receipt and the voting machines can not?
    him: its too expensive, ridiculous, and unnecessary
    me: I work on computers 17 hours per day, and I know how vulnerable they are, and I would much rather have a paper ballot
    him: you weren't around in the 70's when poll workers had to stay half the night to count ballots and then wait another few hours for the police and election officials to confirm and seal the ballots. it is much better now. less errors when machines do it. people mess up.
    him: (wanders off)
    So its better to have massive errors than spend a little extra time to get it right?
    We're doomed.
    Hell i'd volunteer to stay up all night counting ballots if it meant being fair.

  24. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by Jae0 View Post
    Hell i'd volunteer to stay up all night counting ballots if it meant being fair.
    Yeah, and I would tend to think that there are probably hundreds of thousands, if not MILLIONS, who would as well.

    If they're getting poll workers who don't want to count ballots, they're just hiring the wrong poll workers, and obviously they haven't made an effort in the precinct to actually find someone who WOULD.

    There's no viable excuse for not wanting to use paper, hand-counted ballots.

    NONE.

  25. #22
    I'm in Spartanburg County, the town of Moore.

    The voting booth link was from an Anderson County link...should be same procedure, right?

    It's just raining and 40 degrees here.

    Lots of support up this way - at least I see it with roadside signs and a banners people have put up along the roads I travel. Because I live in "the Bible Belt" (and I'm a Christian) I sent out Ron Paul's Statement of Faith to everyone I knew and then some. Those I know in the Christian arena are attached to Huckabee (I would think the whole Bush hypocrisy would have changed their minds). Huckabee makes a mockery of our faith - it's quite transparent - hopefully others see it too.

    LEK

  26. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by tsetsefly View Post
    with all the tech savy rp supporters cant we rig some machines for RP, thats how the republicans won and I am sure it happened in NH so its just fighting fire with fire...
    haha best post that ive seen on forums in a while. great thinking

  27. #24
    Alright guys...big news

    I was curious about my confusion with the voting machine, so I looked it up on SCvotes.org. It says that if you don't see a thank you screen after voting, your vote didn't go through. Guess what I didn't see? And, guess who told me that the screen I did see was what it was supposed to show?

    So I called the election commission, made a statement, had it recorded. They are on their way there now to investigate. I spoke with three others who also did not see the thank you screen.

    Will keep you guys updated. I'm on my way to meet the election commission people now.

    Wonder if they'll laugh at me wanting a paper ballot now? Never ignore a mother's intuition!



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  29. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by perrin_for_paul View Post
    Alright guys...big news

    I was curious about my confusion with the voting machine, so I looked it up on SCvotes.org. It says that if you don't see a thank you screen after voting, your vote didn't go through. Guess what I didn't see? And, guess who told me that the screen I did see was what it was supposed to show?

    So I called the election commission, made a statement, had it recorded. They are on their way there now to investigate. I spoke with three others who also did not see the thank you screen.

    Will keep you guys updated. I'm on my way to meet the election commission people now.

    Wonder if they'll laugh at me wanting a paper ballot now? Never ignore a mother's intuition!
    Godspeed! The Revolution is always watching!
    In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.

  30. #26
    Quote Originally Posted by perrin_for_paul View Post
    Alright guys...big news

    I was curious about my confusion with the voting machine, so I looked it up on SCvotes.org. It says that if you don't see a thank you screen after voting, your vote didn't go through. Guess what I didn't see? And, guess who told me that the screen I did see was what it was supposed to show?

    So I called the election commission, made a statement, had it recorded. They are on their way there now to investigate. I spoke with three others who also did not see the thank you screen.

    Will keep you guys updated. I'm on my way to meet the election commission people now.

    Wonder if they'll laugh at me wanting a paper ballot now? Never ignore a mother's intuition!
    Way to go, girl!

    Imagine if every voter in this country cared this much.

  31. #27
    I just voted, too. The precinct was empty except for the poll workers. One guy did come in as I was leaving. Hed was grumbling about his precinct being changed.

    The electronic voting machines are not user friendly and do not offer the same degree of privacy that the older machines did.

    The whole process is suspect.

  32. #28
    shinanagins goin on in SC...... and its only 10:30 am ----Let this be a lesson, vote early so if you have a problem you come here or call state HQ and have time to check things and get the info you need, and still have time to go get your vote counted.....

    In nevada where theres only an hour of voting, show up like an hour early. thats your chance to verify the location, call HQ if needed, or drive to correct location. and take phone numbers for HQ/meetup WITH you before you go to voting location.
    Last edited by nc4rp; 01-19-2008 at 09:32 AM.
    Ron Paul Phone-Calls from Home - call people the campaign have on lists that might vote for Dr Paul.
    http://phone.ronpaul2012.com

  33. #29
    Great Job. Inspiring and hopeful.

  34. #30
    "I'm on my way to meet the election commission people now."

    You go girl!

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