Tuesday night I attended the rally in Kissimmee, Florida to hear Jimmy Smits, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. It was the most diverse crowd I've ever been a part of. Over 35,000 people were out at 11:00 at night in the cold (Florida cold) to attend a political rally. Are you kidding me? 35,000 at practically midnight? It was fantastic!
It was my third time to see Obama. He's been to Central Florida often. Each time I see I'm more impressed and chomping at the bit to take off in a new direction. I rolled into bed at 2 a.m., chilled to the bone and thoroughly high on hope.
But, last night I was trained to be a poll worker. Maybe I'm being overly anxious, but I have some real concerns about election day in Florida. Follow me below.
About forty people attended the four hour training session. The training was divided into two parts: the black box and the EViD. Each polling place has only one of each of these machines. I have two concerns about these machines that are vital to the voting process.
The black box is the optical scanner that processes the paper ballots after they have been marked. There are two keys to the black box. The black key opens all the functioning parts of the black box except the software niche. Poll workers need that key to do their jobs. The gold key opens only the software compartment. Every poll worker has access to both keys. I'm wondering why poll workers should have access to the gold key. It seems the process would be much more secure if only the clerk had access to the key to the compartment that houses the software. In a matter of seconds, anyone with the gold key and ulterior motives could easily exchange the software. Easy as pie. It seems like such an easy precaution. Give the gold key to the clerk. Done! But maybe I'm just being too motherly about my black box. Still. . .
The EViD optical scanner is my major concern. At the training session, EViDs were provided, one for about every three participants, for hands-on training. The EViDs connect to the database. In Florida, voters are required to provide a photo ID, usually a drivers license, to compare to a database. The concern, thusfar, has been that IDs will not match the database information and non-matching voters will be allowed to cast only provisional ballots. After attending the training, I have another concern which could cause many more voters to be disenfranchised.
During the training, only about six machines were able to boot. Of those, only a few worked without error. Mine had a touch screen malfunction. Whenever I touched the number one, a 2 registered on the screen. My first data entry is the voter's birth date, so you can see how valuable the number one is to the process. Other machines had other quirky quirks that ranged from annoyances to problems severe enough to call for a new machine. Without the EViD, the ID can't be checked to the database. Sure EViDs can be changed out by a runner, but that takes time.
Maybe I'm just being too jittery, but I guess I think that at this late date all voting equipment should be checked out and ready to go -- especially machines that are used to train poll workers. If as many EViD's malfunction on election day as did at my training session, lines and waits will be longer, and some voters may lose their opportunity to vote.
The presidential race is so close here, but the bottom of the ticket is even tighter. We may lose any voter who can't stand to wait in a long line.
I just heard that a malfunction caused voters in Orange County to be without the database connection for half an hour. So maybe my concerns are valid.
Shouldn't this equipment is FIRED UP and READY TO GO on election day? Am I being overly concerned?