I headed off to my local polling place bright and early today. With only a few choices on the ballot in this mid-term election, casting my vote was a quick process. Unfortunately, figuring out how to use the electronic polling machine was the hard part!
Envision walking into a booth and facing a giant paper poster written in what appears to be Spanish – I swear that there were more Spanish words than English words on the poster! Being the try first / read instructions never kind of person, I started hitting buttons on the small key pad under the “poster” to record my vote. When nothing seemed to happen when I punched the keypad, I pulled back the curtain and asked the assistant what I was doing wrong. He reached around the curtain and pushed directly on a name on the giant paper poster and a lighted check mark glowed from under the paper next to the name. As I was likely only one of the first 20 people to vote, he was still able to restrain an eye roll. However, every person ahead of me (including my husband) asked for assistance, so I am confident that he will be (or should be) giving out the same instructions to every voter in my voting district.
What is scary is I that consider myself to be at least as tech “savvy” as the average Joe. At least I’m not afraid to try and then ask questions … but what about the thousands of others who freak out when new technology doesn’t work on the first try. I’m sure you’ve seen them freak out in the grocery store checkout line as they unsuccessfully attempt to slide their credit cards through the payment scanner. Will these voters freak out at the polling place and not ask for help? Will they walk out assuming that they’ve voted, but haven’t? As we left the polling place, my husband I both wondered if we had just witnessed the 2006 electronic hanging chad. It just highlights the pitfalls of bringing new technology to the masses … pretty scary!