I woke up this morning looking forward to voting–and looking forward to doing so electronically for the first time. California’s San Mateo County uses something called the eSlate voting system, and I figured my experiences, good or bad, would make for a good post here.
When I arrived at my polling place, though, they found no record of me on the roster of registered voters. I’m pretty sure that this is simply because I’ve only lived in San Mateo county for five months, and registered to vote here at the last moment. But I was only allowed to vote provisionally, and we provisional voters use a very old-school system: I filled in circles on a paper ballot and then stuffed it into a box with a slot on top.
So did anyone reading this vote electronically? If so, I’d love to hear about your take on the system you used…or even on electronic voting in general. I remain skeptical about it–although the eSlate, which has a paper backup, looks OK. But as a techhead, I feel deprived for never having had the chance to try it.