I voted.

[dsrtao]

My precinct uses paper ballots which are marked with a heavy black permanent ink, scanned by a counting machine and retained for recount purposes.

Voter identification for voters already on the books is minimal: they ask where you live, ask your full name, and check you off. There is a cop eating donuts on the other side of the room. I didn't recognize him; I think I know about a third of the police department, but it's probably less. A different desk with the same voter registration books checks you out by the same process.

Since there was no line, it took about four minutes from stepping into the room to stepping out again; this was with two sick kids in tow.

Separate accomodations must be made for the blind, but I don't know what they are. Braille ballots? There was a translator present who was looking underworked. The south part of town has more linguistic diversity -- several kinds of Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole. Up north is solid New English, with the name of our town as a shibboleth.

Comments

[sareena99.livejournal.com]

>Up north is solid New English, with the name of our town as a shibboleth.<

Well, yes.
The original Waltham in the UK is Waltham Abbey, pronounced Walt - ham. The original Walt must be turning in his grave. (grin)
Milan (My-lan), NY, also rubs me the wrong way.
Does this make me Old English?

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm solidly in the multilingual part of town. I can hear all those languages spoken through the open windows of my apartment in the summer, plus an Asian language that I've yet to identify coming from the small apartment building next door. And a couple of blocks away are a few African families (not Haitian).

I, too, encountered no line when I cast my primary vote at 8:20.

[be-well-lowell.livejournal.com]

There are headphone-driven computer systems for the blind, which generate a printed ballot (at least, that's the system I've seen in three Massachusetts towns over the 15 years I've lived here -- not that I've ever seen them in use). I don't know more technical details than that.

The turnout at my polling place this morning seemed heavy to me, but the lines were moving very quickly.

Republican caging efforts notwithstanding, voter identification is not a problem. It's easy to vote as someone else, but such efforts don't scale. This leads to my computer-security instincts being exactly wrong about the risks involved.

[siderea]

Separate accomodations must be made for the blind, but I don't know what they are.

As it happens, the post immediately following yours (preceding? well, below) on my friends list was thorbol, who is blind, relating having a secret ballot for the first time ever, and discussing how it worked.