We got to Patuxent High about 8:20 AM. Said hi to Becky on the way in. The "cool machines" of Railroad proved to be a nightmare in Calvert. Only about one of twenty cards actually write when they are inserted into the machine so you can get you card and vote.
The software from Diebold is terrible. When the smart card does not write correctly, instead of just inserting another card and trying to write the new one, the election judge has to start all over from the beginning searching for the voter, selecting the voter, putting in a card, attempting to write the card. How stupid is that? So if your are one of the "lucky ones", you get your card on the first or second try, or you might stand there while the election judge tries repeatedly to get a card to write so you can vote. The repeat count was 20 - 30 times while I was at the polls for an hour and a half trying to vote.
I got my card on the second try.
I was conducted to a "cool machine" and told to put my card in and when the screen came on, select my party affiliation, and vote. Put card in, black screen on "cool machine." Can't get card out. Voting judge goes into
mode. Two more voting judges come over. Eventually the "cool machine" spits out my card. A voting judge checks it. I have voted. I ask who did I vote for?
More
Call "Gail" whoever Gail is. No answer. Busy. No answer. Busy ... do dah do dah. Gail informs one of the Chief Election Judges that they should clear my vote and reissue the card.
Election judge looks me up. Goes to the bottom to clear the vote. Gets the Chief Election Judge to enter their password. Tries to write the (not so) smart card. Fails. Lets try again. Fail. Fail. Fail. Fail. Try different card writer. Fail, fail, fail. Wouldn't you like to fill out a Provisional Ballot? Yeah. OK.
Where are those provisional ballots? Ah. Found them in this cardboard box sitting in the corner. Here. Sit here and you can vote. Oops. No. You can't sit here where the Chief Election Judge put you says the other Chief Election Judge. The card board box over there is where you have to vote. Get up and move. Start to vote.
Another guy had arrived and found out he had already voted and he never even got one of the (not so) smart cards. They went through the same
with him and finally decided to give him a provisional ballot. He wants to know if he can just fill out the ballot. No. You have to wait until he (me) is through with the cardboard box.
I go to turn over ballot to vote for races on reverse side and notice that Chief Election Judge one has given me five (5), yes, count them, five ballots. Hello, mister Chief Election Judge two, I have a problem. Oh. Thank you. How are we going to get these apart. I volunteer to pull out the staple with my trusty Swiss Army knife. Yea. I now have one ballot. Thank you for being so honest. I finish voting.
I get up and Chief Election Judge two runs over
We shouldn't have taken out the staple. We should have torn the ballot off on the perforation. Ah. So that is what that is for. Would have thought the election board training would have covered that. Let me tear that off. Oh. I need to yours, too, speaking to other "already voted" voter. Do we have a stapler?
I turn my provisional ballot in. No cover sheet. Give the ballot along with the voter ID slip they printed out to Chief Election Judge one. She put them both in an big envelope.; no separate storage.
So much for secret ballot.
I am then informed I am done. Lady, I was so done long before voting. An hour and a half I was there trying to vote with these "cool machines."
While I was there, many people tried to get their cards and the Diebold card writer failed. The two Diebold "engineers" (I use that term loosely.) did not have a clue what to do. One of the engineers had the audacity to say it was because it was a primary election. I very, very, rarely use even mild profanity, but I was not the best Christian and found myself proclaiming for the room to hear, "BS" but the fully fleshed out version. I told him his system was garbage.
A election observer wanted me to speak with him. He puts me on the phone with a guy in Annapolis. I ask whom I am speaking with. Turns out to be a volunteer for a Democratic organization watching for voting irregularities. I tell him I'm a Republican. He say, that's OK. They just want to make sure the democratic process works. I tell him we live in a republic. OK. The voting process. Did you get to vote? Yes. Provisional, but the electronic system thinks I voted, so the system may think I voted twice. Interesting. Glad you stuck it out. But a lot of people didn't. They left without voting. Had to get to work. Might come back later. He tells me that Montgomery county didn't even get the smart cards delivered, so everyone was having to vote with provisional ballots.
During my hour and a half, I observed more people not voting than voting all because of the "cool machines."
You think the Florida protests were bad. Just wait. If I were a candidate, I would already be filing a grievance.