On Nov 3, 6:57 pm, Amy Guskin  wrote:   
   > >> On Wed, 3 Nov 2010 15:36:17 -0400, John W. Kennedy wrote   
   > HA!  What?  I mean, what is your primary method of voting?  We have optical   
   > ballots (ovals that you fill in with pens) that are fed into a scanner by the   
   > voter.  We also have the iVotronic which is only ever used by visually   
   > handicapped voters.  So I'm trying to understand what he/she got ink on!   
   Everybody /calls/ them "touchscreen", but it's not true; they're a   
   wall of pushbuttons and lights hidden behind a hard white,   
   semitransluscent plastic front. Press the name and a glowing green X   
   appears next to it. Functionally, they're more or less digital   
   versions of the old electromechanical "lever" machines.   
   Write-in is done by pushing the "write-in" entry for the particular   
   office, instead of one of the named entries, which brings up the same   
   green X, but blinking, then typing the name on an ergonomic nightmare   
   of a keyboard:   
   <- Enter -> A B C D E F G H I J K L M   
   ----------- N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z   
   (<- is backspace; -> is space; Enter is irrevocable)   
   Hitting "Enter" makes the green X steady.   
   When everything is done, you hit the glowing red "Cast Vote" button,   
   your vote is counted, and the "screen" is reset.   
   > We had fewer write-ins than usual this year, mainly because it was such a   
   > straightforward ballot.  Four races, all pretty major, so that cut down on   
   > people writing in their 8-year old children's names for fun.  We did get one   
   > "none of the above."   
   Where I was working, there was a major write-in campaign for the town   
   council. About 40% of the votes were write-in.   
   --- SBBSecho 2.12-Win32   
    * Origin: Time Warp of the Future BBS - Home of League 10 (1:14/400)