stickmaker: (Default)
Stickmaker ([personal profile] stickmaker) wrote2006-05-16 05:06 pm

Voted Today

Apparently, the republican administration here in Kentucky has decided to punish all democrats in as many petty, inconveniencing ways as possible.

At the polling place where I voted they had one of the machines they've been using for years set up for the republican primary. For the democrats, however, they used a new, "accessible" machine. Which was actually less accessible, at least for me. It was at a fixed and too-low height. To see the whole screen I had to duck under a hood, putting my lower back at an uncomfortable angle. The interface was a shuttle wheel arrangement; I had to spin that until the person I wanted to select was highlighted, then push a button. I'm still not sure I voted for the people I wanted to. The growing pain in my lower back made me reluctant to review my choices.

Access to the form was purely linear, requiring me to spin the wheel either way, back and forth, until I got what I wanted. It was also too sensitive. That is, a small movement could cause it to wildly overshoot.

If this pattern was the same at all voting places (republicans allowed to use the old, easy and familiar booth while democrats had to use the new, awkward one) there's definitely grounds for charges of discrimination, here.

[identity profile] gazerwolf.livejournal.com 2006-05-16 11:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Somehow you posted this twice.

[identity profile] stickmaker.livejournal.com 2006-05-17 12:01 am (UTC)(link)
I was having cookie trouble with LJ and it posted but also came back with an error message that it hadn't posted because I wasn't logged in. Cookie problem now solved.

[identity profile] starsongky.livejournal.com 2006-05-17 05:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Our site had 2 precints, 2 machines for each and all were the new model. Perhaps next time you should ask one of the poll-workers to borrow a chair and vote sitting down. The whole point was making them more accessible, after all.