
No, I'm not just using the best smilie- check it out http://www.honestyandethics.com/he/default.asp
Two surprises from today.
After a 30 minute wait to get to the registration table I found two lines. Line 1 was about a 15 minute wait for an electronic voting booth. Line 2 was for paper ballots and completely empty. Since we had time my wife and I decided to wait for the electronic ballot, but even the people complaining about how long the process was taking mostly refused to jump to the paper ballot line. After watching maybe 80 people vote, I only saw at most 10 people choose paper ballots.
The electronic voting machine was interesting. Some people were taking upward of 5 minutes. However, we had seen the sample ballot the week before and made our choices. Given the preponderance of sample ballots, and voting material across the wall I couldn't fathom why people were taking so long. Then I entered the booth.
The electronic ballot was fairly simple. However unless you pressed the leftmost portion of the selection it did not register. It literally didn't pick up my selections unless I pressed in the leftmost fifth of the selection. By the 45 minute mark after the polls opened the election officials were already frustrated with the machines. Only another 12 hours and 15 minutes to go.
Ps- I voted for the communist.... If you don't know who that is don't worry. Neither did the asshat of exit poller that yelled at my wife. She was waiting for me beyond the threshold that he was allowed to cross and he did not like that one bit. Anyway- that poll is going to have a larger margin of error.