Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Voter privacy lost at GREENWOOD 6

Yesterday I drove a voter to Northwood Middle School, Woodstock, to vote.

As I stood at the door and waited for him, I noticed that he was not provided privacy for his electronic voting. The booth with the touch-screen was just inside the front door and was facing the wall, so that he had his back to anyone coming and going. This meant that the screen was visible to anyone passing by who cared to look. I sat down in the chair by the front door and became aware that I could see his voting screen.

I stood and moved away, and then I mentioned this to the poll workers, who explained that the little sidewings on the voting booth were supposed to be the privacy. Also, that the chair was for a poll watcher (who wasn't there). They mentioned that, when a poll watcher was seated there, the chair was to be moved to the other wall (where it blocked the entrance). Right..... I turned my back to the voter, to protect his right to privacy.

There was apparently only the one electronic voting booth there. If you wanted to vote with a paper ballot, there were several voting booths beyond the entrance hallway.

At the very least, the booth should have been turned so that the touch-screen was not visible to passersby.

I did wonder why someone working the polls there had not noticed and corrected this earlier in the day or even after I mentioned it.

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