The electronic voting method is not foolproof. Think of all the times the "autocorrect" function on your phone has led to embarrassing text messages, or President Donald Trump's infamous "covfefe" Twitter posting. We all rely on our electronics at our own peril.
As Houston voter Leah McElrath discovered while reviewing her party-line Democratic ballot choices, her U.S. Senate vote was inadvertently checked for Republican Ted Cruz — definitely not her intention. According to an Associated Press report, she snapped a photo of what happened so she could document it online and see if anyone else had experienced similar problems.
"The main thing isn't why it's happening — if it's malice, malfunctioning or poor design. It just needs to stop," McElrath said.
Similar glitches have surfaced in St. Louis. There's no evidence to suggest that something nefarious is happening. And the last thing we want is to undermine voter confidence in the integrity of American elections. What we do want to counsel, however, is caution.
Whether submitting a paper or electronic ballot, voters should have double-checked their responses to make absolutely sure each marked box reflected the voter's intended response. Electronic ballots ask whether the voter wants to review answers before submitting. The answer should always be affirmative, because stuff happens and, sometimes, the wrong box gets checked.
Touch-screen systems are particularly vulnerable to errors if they are improperly calibrated. "The machines in St. Louis city and St. Louis County are over 15 years old, and they do sometimes have problems calibrating correctly," Denise Lieberman, the coordinator of the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition, told the Riverfront Times. "If that happens, here's what should happen at the polling place: The poll worker is supposed to take that machine out of service immediately and then turn it off, turn it back on and recalibrate it."
In Texas, where long lines started forming as soon as polling places opened last month for early voting, multiple complaints have been filed about electronic "vote flipping," where the voter believes one box was checked but, upon review, another candidate's box is marked. Officials insist it's not the machines' fault but rather the users being in too much of a hurry.
Either way, we can't emphasize enough the importance of checking and rechecking your selections. If there were long lines outside the polling place, the tendency may have been to rush through the process so you could get to work or move on to other pressing business.
But it only takes a few extra moments to review and make corrections where necessary. Because once a ballot is submitted, there is no turning back.
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