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The ballot-counting equipment is part of a broader redesign of Los Angeles County’s voting system, which will include new equipment while rel

by haney 8y ago

The ballot-counting equipment is part of a broader redesign of Los Angeles County’s voting system, which will include new equipment while relying on a traditional paper ballot. So they’re paper ballots but the machine to count them is open source?

sprokolopolis 8y ago
It seems the larger plan will be to have tablet kiosks where you can either select your choices, or scan a QR code from your phone (with your pre-selected choices) and then your ballot selections are printed to the paper ballot. They have been asking for suggested areas for "Voting Centers" recently where LA County citizens can vote at the location of their choosing. Many people here have long commutes from traffic or public transport. For this reason (and maybe others) the County wants to make it so people can vote at any of the available "vote centers", rather than one assigned polling location by their home. You can watch the video that they were sending around here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC_-8Nl-O3U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC_-8Nl-O3U
- ollien 8y ago
  This just sounds like a really expensive pencil if all it does it print it out on paper.
  - jfoutz 8y ago
    It can be a super helpful assistive tech. Also you can make selections before hand, and still secure the actual ballots. Tracking all printed, spoiled and cast ballots can be helpful. Also, you get to examine the actual ballot before casting your vote, even if you don’t fill it out with a pencil.
  - jacobolus 8y ago
    People marking paper ballots manage to screw up the marking in every conceivable way, and when those are recounted in a close race, whoever is doing the counting can exercise some discretion in edge cases. Presumably a machine could guarantee that the ballot was filled out correctly and not spoiled. For example, in a 2017 election for a seat of the Virginia House which would have switched party control, an election recount came up one vote in favor of the Democrat, but then GOP officials declared that a (clearly spoiled under any reasonable interpretation of the official rules for counting) ballot should count for the GOP candidate, making the vote a tie. Another GOP official then decided the contest in the GOP candidate’s favor by drawing his name from a hat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_House_of_Delegates_election,_2017#Recounts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_House_of_Delegates_el...
    - labster 8y ago
      I've been a poll worker. This is true. Once a race has two columns of candidates the voter errors spike, no matter how well designed the ballot is. I wish election results came with a margin of error calculation, because too many people assume that a vote result is 100% accurate. Especially to justify the result of a winner-take-all election.
sneak 8y ago
I'm more concerned with the computer that tells the polling operators who is allowed to vote and who isn't, personally.

by haney 8y ago

sprokolopolis 8y ago

It seems the larger plan will be to have tablet kiosks where you can either select your choices, or scan a QR code from your phone (with your pre-selected choices) and then your ballot selections are printed to the paper ballot. They have been asking for suggested areas for "Voting Centers" recently where LA County citizens can vote at the location of their choosing. Many people here have long commutes from traffic or public transport. For this reason (and maybe others) the County wants to make it so people can vote at any of the available "vote centers", rather than one assigned polling location by their home. You can watch the video that they were sending around here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC_-8Nl-O3U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC_-8Nl-O3U

ollien 8y ago
This just sounds like a really expensive pencil if all it does it print it out on paper.
- jfoutz 8y ago
  It can be a super helpful assistive tech. Also you can make selections before hand, and still secure the actual ballots. Tracking all printed, spoiled and cast ballots can be helpful. Also, you get to examine the actual ballot before casting your vote, even if you don’t fill it out with a pencil.
- jacobolus 8y ago
  People marking paper ballots manage to screw up the marking in every conceivable way, and when those are recounted in a close race, whoever is doing the counting can exercise some discretion in edge cases. Presumably a machine could guarantee that the ballot was filled out correctly and not spoiled. For example, in a 2017 election for a seat of the Virginia House which would have switched party control, an election recount came up one vote in favor of the Democrat, but then GOP officials declared that a (clearly spoiled under any reasonable interpretation of the official rules for counting) ballot should count for the GOP candidate, making the vote a tie. Another GOP official then decided the contest in the GOP candidate’s favor by drawing his name from a hat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_House_of_Delegates_election,_2017#Recounts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_House_of_Delegates_el...
  - labster 8y ago
    I've been a poll worker. This is true. Once a race has two columns of candidates the voter errors spike, no matter how well designed the ballot is. I wish election results came with a margin of error calculation, because too many people assume that a vote result is 100% accurate. Especially to justify the result of a winner-take-all election.

sneak 8y ago

I'm more concerned with the computer that tells the polling operators who is allowed to vote and who isn't, personally.