Next Tuesday: new voting machines for primary election

Next Tuesday, September 14, registered Republicans and Democrats will go to the polls to vote for their respective parties nominees for various local and statewide races, including the Republican nominee for Governor and the Democratic nominee for Attorney General.

2010 is the year New York City switches from the old lever-style voting machines and adopt new machines with paper ballots and electronic scanning. It’s supposed to be super-easy. There are two areas of concern, though. First, some people are stupid and couldn’t, in the words of Cowboys linebacker Hollywood Henderson, spell “cat” if you spotted them the C and the A. Secondly, this will be almost everyone’s first time – the voters, the poll-workers, and the NYC Board of Elections. With that many noobs, even the best of us can run into problems.

There isn’t much we can do if the BOE is going to screw up, but at least we can control our own futures by doing a little basic research on the new process, starting with the Vote The New Way web site.

This NBC video makes it look pretty easy, but its worth pointing out he showed us how things happen when everything is done correctly. He doesn’t demonstrate any exception-handling, like overvoting (picking too many candidates for one office). What if demonstrator in the video had voted for both vanilla and chocolate? When you put the ballot in the machine, it is supposed to tell you that you “overvoted” and then give you a choice:

• Green check mark: takes your faulty ballot and does not record your vote
• Red ‘X’: gives your ballot back to you, giving you a chance to get a fresh ballot and start over.

Folks, this was the subject of a lawsuit earlier this year, and the following tip is really, REALLY important: if the machine tells you that you overvoted, PRESS THE RED X AND ASK FOR A FRESH BALLOT.

In fact, don’t try to erase or cross out any mistakes. Don’t be the Hanging Chad of our time. If you screw up, ask for a fresh ballot – you’re allowed up to three.

Remember to fill in the circle, as if you are taking the SAT over again. Don’t mark it with an ‘X’ or draw a line around a name – that doesn’t count.

You can look for a demonstration in your area. I don’t see many in South Brooklyn, though that may be attributable to the unopposed candidacy of some of our favorite machine politicians. I expect this to change in October, when certain unliked politicians realize they need their base to know how to vote for them. You can also go to the BOE’s offices at 345 Adams Street during regular 9-to-5 hours.

Or you can just wing it based on the resources you found through here. The good news is that the primary should serve as a warm-up for the general election in November, which should have considerably more voters. Good luck!