I thought that early voting in more states and earlier than ever before would decrease some of the voter issues that we have seen in previous Presidential elections. I thought too soon. Today, we heard reports of long lines, voter machine problems and those provisional ballots (nearly 1 in 3 of these get thrown out) in places like Georgia, Florida, West Virginia, and many other states across this great country.
We just want a fair and balanced election that allows the votes of every citizen to be legally counted and rightly given to the correct candidates in all races, in each state. This all seems to be a problem already. We have misspelled name of a Presidential candidate, missing names of running candidates, wrong names of candidates not running, and misaligned selections on ballots for those seeking to cast their votes.
We have all of this technology, newly spent money, newly purchased or leased equipment, more manpower, and all of this time spent updating outdated equipment, enlisting new early voting opportunities in double the amount of states from the last Presidential election, provided more places for early voting and even had record amounts of people exercising their right to vote, only to find ourselves in the same position of machine malfunctions, distribution of provisional ballots, long lines, misaligned selections and frustration. The process should be more effective and less complicated.
However, I have found with new systems come many additional problems than solutions; this insight comes from personal experience with new computer systems that have caused me some personal headaches than solutions. The system appears to be more ineffective and more work. No entity will take responsibility and everybody plays the blame game, but wants you to fix the problem so that no one has to be held responsible for the errors that occurred. No one wants fault and no one will accept fault.
I believe that a 6-month trial of new equipment or systems with testing, training and functions would be more suitable with non-confidential information; this would be my suggestion with new systems that cause more frustration than satisfaction. I am sure that many organizations will say that they try this method, the kinks are worked out and now the system works so well. Maybe, the amount of time spent and the input of those who must work within the system and those who may be affected by it should have more input and opinion.
It may save us all a lot of money, time and frustration. Nevertheless, I take nothing away from so many states trying to replace old and outdated equipment with new voting equipment. This could be found to be a more effective fit in a place like Florida with those hanging chads. We remember the hanging chads.
The new polling equipment is causing many problems and issues that may affect the outcome of this election and I do not believe that the American voter will stand up and accept the end result, if it is deemed to have as many flaws as we already see happening. We are only 2 weeks away. Can you believe it?
Young voters, new voters, and enthusiasm about this election has risen above levels ever expected and I only hope that all those committed voters get every one of their votes counted, from the very first day they voted through the last day that each provisional vote is counted. Validate our votes. We count and we worked hard to have the right to vote.
