Observations of a Poll Worker: A Critique Of The eSlate

The possibilities of vote fraud by computer hacking have been widely discussed in the news media. A more immediate concern should be electronic voting equipment that is not user-friendly.

With the Hart Intercivic eSlate, our polling place’s Presiding Judge and I had to answer an extraordinary number of requests for voter assistance on Election Day 2006. Most, but not all, of these calls for help came from elderly people or voters with heavy accents. Voters under 50 years of age seemed to need less help, and young people hardly any at all.

On Election Day 2006, I was an Assistant Judge at the Townewest Town Hall in Fort Bend County. I’m a Democrat. The Presiding Judge is a Republican. We took turns at the JBC, which is the eSlate’s controller, and with the very numerous requests for help from voters.

Two precincts voted at our polling location, one in the 9th US House District and the other in the 22nd. We had twelve booths and four additional clerks.

At the election training session, I thought Elections Administrator J. R. Perez’s instructions to poll workers about the write-in race were clearly-stated and fair. At my session he also stated that if a voter mistakenly ed the wrong straight party choice, that they could only fix it by re-ing the individual races for the rest of the ballot. He said this was a known problem with eSlate.

On Election Day morning at about 8 am, I called the technical support hot line with a question. I was on hold for 15 minutes before I hung up without getting a response. Later, the Presiding Judge found the answer to our question in the eSlate instruction book.

At about 6:45 pm, a voter came in who claimed to have called County Elections and was told to come to our polling place. Her name didn’t show up on our lists or on the Palm Pilot list. The Presiding Judge called the election worker hot line and was put on hold for over 30 minutes before she finally hung up without getting a response. This should not have happened and the County Elections people need to do better next time.

The voter was upset but was not allowed to vote. I sympathized with her but pointed out that there were too many negatives in her particular situation. I gave her Congressman Al Green’s phone number and told the voter she could file a protest if she wanted. Earlier in the day, the Presiding Judge was able to get through to the election worker hot line at least once when there was a question of voter eligibility.

We asked people, “Are you familiar with the eSlate?” If they said no, and most people said no, we often tried to instruct them. We talked about the 4-digit code, the Enter button and Select wheel, the Cast Ballot button. It was too much information. I literally got a sore throat from constantly repeating this information. When we got too tired, we just told voters to read the directions and let them fend for themselves. In at least two cases, voters who received no verbal instructions prematurely pushed the Cast Ballot button. We told them we were sorry but they were done voting.

I estimate that I was asked to help over a hundred voters. Of these, most could not figure out how to enter the 4-digit code. I would tell them to watch carefully as I ed and entered the first two numbers. Then I would ask them to enter the next one or two numbers, telling them that voting for candidates with the Select wheel and the Enter button worked in a similar way.

Another problem with the eSlate was on the first page of the ballot. On page 1 the wheel only advanced clockwise. This confused many people. Some spent several minutes staring at the screen before asking for help. By the end of the evening, with many voters lined up, if a voter needed help with the 4-digit code, I would make sure they got to the ballot, then advance the wheel for them to the place just above the first candidate in the unexpired term (in the 22nd) or the straight party choice (in the 9th). This avoided a second call for help from the befuddled voter.

When a voter has problems in the ballot part of the eSlate, this allows the poll worker to look right at the voter’s choices. This is troubling, since voting is supposed to be secret. After an election worker helps a large number of voters, who needs an exit poll?
Here is the big problem with the eSlate. When there are a large number of requests for assistance, an unscrupulous poll worker has opportunites to trip up voters from the other party.

Consider this situation. Early in the day, a middle aged man asked me for help. He had already voted for Sekula-Gibbs for the unexpired term at the top of the ballot and had checked the straight Republican box. He said he was a little confused. He asked me a fuzzy general question about the election but he didn’t specifically ask me about a write-in. You can see the temptation here.

As a Democrat, it would have been very easy for me to say he’d voted for Sekula-Gibbs and that he should cast his ballot and go. At that time, the devil was poking me with his fork pretty hard and telling me to try it. I told the man he needed to be more specific. He then asked if there was a place on the ballot he could write in Sekula-Gibbs. I then directed him to the 22nd District write-in box on page 2 of his ballot. By the end of the day,I didn’t care if people voted Republican or Democratic. I just wanted them out the door so I could go home.

With eSlate, when a straight party box is marked, the entire ballot is marked. Several people then went down the ballot and marked the already marked box. When this happens, a blue screen appears, saying that the voter has changed their straight party choice. It also cancels the vote for that person. A few people did this consistently so the ballot summary recorded that they voted for no one at all. At this point the baffled voter usually asked for help. I told them they needed to mark their entire ballot again, by individual races, from the top.

In one case, a voter specifically asked me to mark the straight party choice for each race on her blanked out ballot. I felt very uncomfortable doing this.

Another problem came when casting a ballot. After using the Select wheel and Enter button, a voter would arrive at the final page of the summary. Instead of pushing the Cast Ballot button they would click Enter one more time. This would send them back to the ballot, causing much confusion.

The Cast Ballot button only worked at the last summary page. At other summary pages, pushing Cast Ballot merely sent voters to the next summary page. At this point, a number of puzzled people asked for help. Two people walked out the door and we had to chase them down so they could finish casting their ballots.

About 20 elderly people, divided fairly evenly between Democrats and Republicans, were so helpless that I had to stand there and help them mark their entire ballot. I usually was asked to do this after the second or third call for help from the same individual. The eSlate’s Select wheel and the Enter, Cast Ballot, Next and Prev buttons totally defeated them. A few, mostly elderly people stayed in the booth for a very long time, possibly longer than 15 minutes.

Almost without exception, people patiently waited their turn and were respectful of the voting process. At 7 pm, we had a line out the door. I believe there were 50 to 75 people in line. With so many people working until 6 pm and with a long commute, I wonder if 7 pm is too early to close the polls. Or is it just human nature to try to dash in at the last minute?

With the old optical scan system, all that was needed was a paper ballot and a number 2 pencil. Written instructions were minimal and hardly necessary. Voter requests for help were few and spoiled ballots could be dealt with. This system can hardly be improved upon. With optical scan, the voter navigated the ballot with his eye, marked it with his pencil and ped the ballot in the box.

With the eSlate, the voter navigates the ballot with the Select wheel and the Next and Prev buttons, marks it with the Enter button and uses the Cast Ballot button to it in the box. The Select wheel can be used to do the same thing as the Next and Prev buttons. This is helpful to some people but confusing to others.

There are written instructions posted in the eSlate booth and on the screen. However, people accustomed to the old system aren’t prepared to read a half page of instructions. Ironically, people who read less in our age of TV are being asked to read a set of instructions in order to electronically vote. People expect to use a voting system that works in an obvious way, the way pencil and paper does.

With the eSlate, election workers have to respond to a very large number of calls for assistance. I believe this is not because of voter stupidity, but because we are saddled with a system which is inherently complex and which requires non-trivial instructions.

Some situations can tempt poll workers to sway voters who ask for help. In other cases, voters may not cast their ballot exactly as they intended. I have a bad feeling that in two years, the same people who had trouble in this election will not remember how they voted and will need help again.

David J. Maschek
Houston