[ale] Reporting voting computer problems

[Bob Toxen]

Aaron & ALE,

This is to let you know of a voting irregularity, a.k.a., a software
bug in the voting computers, that  I encountered today.  This problem
blocked me from voting as the law allowed me to until, with significant
effort, a second level supervisor allowed overriding the software.
(This problem was not in the illegal Diebold computers themselves.)

If one did not vote in the primary, which I did not for unforseen reasons,
I am allowed to vote in either primary in today's run-off election.
However, said software improperly and illegally refused today to let me
select which party's run-off ballot to vote from until said supervisor
overrode it.


The details are that I requested an absentee ballot for the Primary for
party Tweedledee.  However, I did not send it in and thus did not actually
cast a vote in the Primary.  Unfortunately, the computer software showed
me as having voted in the Tweedledee (even though I hadn't) and refused
me to get a run-off ballot for the Tweedledum.

Note that the publicly-accessible web site did correctly show me as
having not voted in the primary.


Kudos to my polling place workers who worked with the very dense
"headquarters" supervisor who had great trouble with the concept of "He
asked for a Tweedledee Party Primary absentee ballot but did actually
vote either with it or in person."


It disappoints me that so simple an event was not tested and corrected
in the software.  It shows the dangers of trusting software.

This is my own experience in Gwinnett County, GA, not the forwarding of
anyone else's.

Bob Toxen