Ani (Mar 7 2012)

the biggest issue she saw was that lsaomt all of her fellow election judges were elderly and couldn't neccessarily perform all of their duties to the extent they should have. For example, the judge who stands by the ballot counter needs to stand a certain distance away from the machine to protect the voter privacy. One of the elderly judges couldn't stand that long so she sat in a chair. When the machine would beep because of an error (often to alert the voter of an overvote or undervote) the judge should have stood up and gone over to offer to help the voter discern the error message. This judge couldn't keep getting up and down from their chair, so they just shouted instructions from six feet away, leaving the voter to fend for themselves.She also told me that it is actually against the rules to form separate lines for registered and non-registered voters. The intention is that nothing should deter a voter from registering on the day of the election. Being preregistered should not give anyone an advantage on election day, like waiting in a shorter line. Voters need to be taken in the order they arrive, no matter what their registration status.I also learned the reasoning behind NOT showing ID when you are preregistered. Apparently if a person pulls out their ID, the election judge is supposed to explicitly tell them that they don't need to see it so that other people in line don't think they need ID and get out of line if they don't have one. You would think they would want people to prove their identity to minimize voter fraud, but if you think about it, having a state ID requires paying a fee. If they required everyone to have a state ID in oder to vote, it would be the equivalent of making people pay to vote.I had a very positive experience at my polling place and all of the election judges did a fantastic job. I live in the Phillips Neighborhood of South Minneapolis which consists of a lot of non-native english speakers and folks with low education levels, which means a lot of first time voters. When I arrived during the lunch hour, there was exactly one person in line in front of me. My entire voting process took about 15 minutes. That being said, I think there is a lot of room for improvement in the election process, particularly with regards to some of the antiquated paper-based systems many people have referenced already.

Ani (Mar 7 2012)

the biggest issue she saw was that lsaomt all of her fellow election judges were elderly and couldn't neccessarily perform all of their duties to the extent they should have. For example, the judge who stands by the ballot counter needs to stand a certain distance away from the machine to protect the voter privacy. One of the elderly judges couldn't stand that long so she sat in a chair. When the machine would beep because of an error (often to alert the voter of an overvote or undervote) the judge should have stood up and gone over to offer to help the voter discern the error message. This judge couldn't keep getting up and down from their chair, so they just shouted instructions from six feet away, leaving the voter to fend for themselves.She also told me that it is actually against the rules to form separate lines for registered and non-registered voters. The intention is that nothing should deter a voter from registering on the day of the election. Being preregistered should not give anyone an advantage on election day, like waiting in a shorter line. Voters need to be taken in the order they arrive, no matter what their registration status.I also learned the reasoning behind NOT showing ID when you are preregistered. Apparently if a person pulls out their ID, the election judge is supposed to explicitly tell them that they don't need to see it so that other people in line don't think they need ID and get out of line if they don't have one. You would think they would want people to prove their identity to minimize voter fraud, but if you think about it, having a state ID requires paying a fee. If they required everyone to have a state ID in oder to vote, it would be the equivalent of making people pay to vote.I had a very positive experience at my polling place and all of the election judges did a fantastic job. I live in the Phillips Neighborhood of South Minneapolis which consists of a lot of non-native english speakers and folks with low education levels, which means a lot of first time voters. When I arrived during the lunch hour, there was exactly one person in line in front of me. My entire voting process took about 15 minutes. That being said, I think there is a lot of room for improvement in the election process, particularly with regards to some of the antiquated paper-based systems many people have referenced already.

Ema (Apr 7 2012)

"I'm not going to tell you who to vote for (even though part of me rlleay wants to)..." Like you I did not want to shout out who I was voting for on my blog. But, since this is just a comment, I feel more comfortable sharing the information; I'm voting for Obama. Go Obama!

Junior (Apr 9 2012)

"I'm not going to tell you who to vote for (even though part of me rlealy wants to)..." Like you I did not want to shout out who I was voting for on my blog. But, since this is just a comment, I feel more comfortable sharing the information; I'm voting for Obama. Go Obama!

Junior (Apr 9 2012)

"I'm not going to tell you who to vote for (even though part of me rlealy wants to)..." Like you I did not want to shout out who I was voting for on my blog. But, since this is just a comment, I feel more comfortable sharing the information; I'm voting for Obama. Go Obama!

Junior (Apr 9 2012)

"I'm not going to tell you who to vote for (even though part of me rlealy wants to)..." Like you I did not want to shout out who I was voting for on my blog. But, since this is just a comment, I feel more comfortable sharing the information; I'm voting for Obama. Go Obama!