JaBbA's Hut

I have a few minutes to reflect on this morning...

- The poll workers were so desperate that when they found out I was a computer geek they let me help them get the machines up and running. I was somewhat leery of doing anything, since I don't know the legalities of anyone not a poll worker messing with the insides of one of these machines, but something had to be done. I tried my best to help them get them up and running without touching too much.

- The workers knew that this was going to be a disaster, and they told me so. Unusually candid. "How are we supposed to work these machines with only 3 1/2 hours of training?" They were VERY upset.

- The obvious problem with the machine was the printing function...no surprise there, it was obviously an engineering hack because they weren't designed with the printer at first. The printer has a roll of paper, like a cash register, that comes up over a metal plate, under a viewing window, and then into a "secured" plastic case at the top. The plastic case has a large gear that is supposed to mesh with a gear in the base of the machine to pull the tape up. It's this gear mechanism that seemed to be causing the problems - the tape wasn't being rolled up into the case. There are no guides in the case itself - apparently the tape is supposed to be controlled by a simultaneous push from the bottom and pull from the top. So the tapes would bunch up in the case - either at the bottom, causing the printout to be ruined, or at the top, where the printout would be there but the tape would quickly jam. BTW, this whole mechanism is supposed to be locked, and this is what I was helping with.

- Before voting starts, the poll workers are supposed to run a "Zero report" to clear out any test votes, confirm that the current count is 0 for everything, and sign the tape. Some of the machine printers printed the report without advancing the tape, making the report unreadable. We got the printout on the one we were working with (although the tape folded up int the top of the machine since the gear wasn't pulling) and she opened the machine to sign it, and then was about to tear the tape - she thought she was supposed to tear the tape, like a receipt! Luckily, we stopped her in time.

- They had the instruction manuals in their hands, but they were flipping back and forth hoping they'd see something that would tell them what do do - they really didn't understand the process of booting a computerized system.

- The promised technician didn't ever show, as far as I know.

I get the feeling that this election might be invalidated.