BIKE: Eslate

[Patrick Goetz]

Michael Zakes wrote:
> in a slightly related note, I've heard that if you are voting a straight
> party ticket and not voting on the CapMetro proposal to be extremely careful
> before pushing the finished button, since the e-tablet machines may shift
> your presidential spot selection. don't know if this has been corrected or
> how widespread it is, just be careful and verify your choices before hitting
> the "cast my vote" button
> 

There's nothing to correct.  It's pretty clear how this happened.  The 
Eslate roller simply rolls you through every possible choice on the 
ballot in order, regardless of whether or not you voted straight party 
(the choices for which are at the beginning).  Any time you hit the big 
Enter button, it will change or mark you as voting for whatever 
candidate/election you happen to be on.  What people must have been 
doing is selecting straight party (roll, Enter) then rolling just a bit 
further and hitting Enter again, perhaps thinking a second Enter meant 
cast ballot (never mind the big red cast ballot button).  The next 
choice on the list after straight party is Bush/Cheney for president, so 
this changed their vote in the presidential race to Bush/Cheney.  Not 
ideal, but I still think the E-slate is much better than the paper 
ballots they had before.  Now if only they generated a paper ballot, 
too......