Voted yesterday! About voting machines.

I live in Alexandria. We had a slate of 14 city council candidates, of which we were asked to choose 6. All were qualified, so it was a difficult choice.

Yesterday was interesting, when my husband and I got to the polling place, we were told that we would have paper ballots. I was all, *wha??* This was totally unique for me. A paper ballot?

I've lived here in Virginia for a little under three years and when I got here, I found the state employed click wheel voting machines for elections. As with all of these E-vote machines, I wasn't comfortable, but I thought they were better than the machines we were given when I lived in Atlanta, which were Diebold. Please understand that until 2006, I had spent my entire life in NYS. Until then, all I ever knew were lever machines.

So, back to voting yesterday --- I got a sheet of paper in a folder, sat down and filled in the boxes with a pen. Then I took it over to a scanner. Fed it into the machine and I was done. It was the most fun I have had voting in a long time. I really love voting-- I'm truly a nerd that way.

I have to say that yesterday I haven't felt more comfortable in casting my vote since my days in NY. To me this paper/scanner combination seems like the most secure approach to voting from a "preventing shenanigans" point of view that I've used to this point. I hope they keep it. I also hope that this isn't just a city thing and that it becomes the norm.