10-26-2012, 10:16 PM
Our old 'voting booths' were oversized suitcases that unfolded, complete with telescoping legs.
With their punch card system you could easily check and see that a vote for 'straight Rastafarian' meant hole 3 should have been punched - it was easy enough to pull out the ballot and verify hole 3 was punched out.
You only needed a light source to vote.
The only part of the process that required power was the tabulator, which sent results back to HQ via an ordinary telephone line (easily run that off a small generator, AND it kept all the punch cards for easy recounts)
Now, post-Florida, we have the touchscreens which require power to every machine plus a customized network connection (try to not trip over the power/network cables on the floor) - forget keeping voting open in case of a power failure.
With their punch card system you could easily check and see that a vote for 'straight Rastafarian' meant hole 3 should have been punched - it was easy enough to pull out the ballot and verify hole 3 was punched out.
You only needed a light source to vote.
The only part of the process that required power was the tabulator, which sent results back to HQ via an ordinary telephone line (easily run that off a small generator, AND it kept all the punch cards for easy recounts)
Now, post-Florida, we have the touchscreens which require power to every machine plus a customized network connection (try to not trip over the power/network cables on the floor) - forget keeping voting open in case of a power failure.