Barb from Worcester, whom alert readers will recall was up at 4.15 AM in her wheelchair, reports that she,”was the first in line at 7:00 am and by the time they opened the door there were 15 people standing behind me, Wha Hoo!
“Of course they wanted me to be the City’s FIRST guinea pig for the “rental” touch screen machines. I’m just glad we didn’t spend our election funds on them. Unfortunately they should be used ONLY by persons who are blind. slowed me down by 100%.
“You have to use the headphones. Once you have the ballot inserted, another wait while it downloads. Since I don’t have to be read the instructions or screens, it was very frustrating waiting, each category must be stated and candidates read before you can check your choice and move to the next screen.
“When you get to the questions, if an issue is long (one took 3 screens) and you can’t scroll down until the machine releases the screen.
“It then records the vote into the memory and then fills in the regular ballot and returns it to you.
“OK now you get to the BIG Problem, after printing you take the completed ballot to the regular Accu-Vote machine to record it officially.
“NOPE, it kept spitting it back out at me…..in 34 years I never had a ballot send back to me.
“The precinct captain came over, and low and behold the Accu-Vote would not read the computer produced ballot! The ink from the printer was not dark enough and not centered in the circle! Thus it became a spoiled ballot. And this time I had to use a regular ballot.
“We called the Election office….all of this by 7:10! And when we finally got through, they have 6 lines, and it took a few , they admitted that it was happening all over Worcester. So when I go back at lunch time, I will check to see if the problem was fixable or not…but certainly slows the process down for those of us that usually take longer because of our disabilities.
“On the minor side, the entry door not accessible 100%, & the entry door, kept locking on everyone, so we had to prop it open in 35 degree weather, not enough space to get me out the door with a line (hall too narrow)and finally, the regular accessible booth comes with very shaky legs attached, and in the middle of my re-vote, the whole booth collapsed on me.
[Jill Stein, here is your campaign platform for 2010 – Eds.]
“So 7-9am had it’s challenges. When I got outside to stand-out, I was the only ONE THERE! I hope that is not the norm …shame on Worcester Patrick/Murray HQ.
Hopefully, the noon shift will be better.
Until later…
Barb from Worcester”
I am glad Barb could keep her wits about herself unlike this guy!
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