The 2008 United States Presidential Election

November 4, 2008

Showing up early in the AM to vote. This was taken around 7:30 AM.

Inside, I was able to use the touch-screen, and wanted a record of it. Partly because this was such a big election… and partly because I had never used one of these machines before.

The buttons on the left did not inspire… confidence in the technology.

Inserting my card into the machine. I think this is where my “votes” got stored.

A shot of the screen itself, along with instructions to proceed.

For those interested, one of the steps near the end is to “print out” your votes onto paper. At first, I thought this was an option… but it turned out to be mandatory. The printout did occur on paper, but it was a receipt-like paper that appeared inside the machine, behind a small pane of glass. You were to review your votes, and verify that the printout matched your decisions.

Once the review process was done, the paper simply scrolled out of view. After that, I took my card out and walked it back over to the on-site moderators.

Weirdly, while I was able to get photos of the auditorium interior during the Primaries, when I asked this time to take a picture… I was redirected to the Republican/Democrat moderators. They felt that I may have needed official “Press Credentials,” and spent a few minutes looking up some things in a fairly large rulebook.

Ultimately, they determined I needed to have credentials to take photos (though they offered to make a call to check). At the time, I figured it wasn’t worth the hassle and so declined on pursuing the matter further. Ah well. If you’re interested in seeing the interior, check out the pics from the Primaries.

Apparently I was in a bit of a rush, as this is totally out of focus.

I took this snapshot mostly for me, for my records. Most of what I do with this blog is to record or document moments, and for some future time when I’m looking back… I’d like this image to remind me of tonight.