Voted on my county's new paper ballot/scan system

[DeminPennswoods]

Today is the first election with our new paper ballot, optical scan voting system. It takes a little more time to mark your ballot and you have to pay closer attention, but once finished, putting your ballot (you do this yourself) into the scanner is fast and easy. The scanner will also tell you if you left a race unmarked or voted for too many (i.e., pick no more than 2, etc). If you want to vote over, just press cancel, your ballot is marked "spoiled" and you get a new ballot to start over.

[JoeOtterbein]

1. What county? I'm in York, will head out later and I'm wondering if we will have them.

[DeminPennswoods]

2. Beaver County

We abut Allegheny County to the NW.

[JoeOtterbein]

5. I hope we have all the new machines in place before 2020, so the RepubRussians can't...

...rig it like they did in 2016.

[DeminPennswoods]

10. It's not optional, the ability to have paper back ups is required

now not later than next Nov.

[JoeOtterbein]

14. Just voted in York. Paper ballot but no receipt.

[John1956PA]

3. The system you describe is terrific in that the scanner is at the polling site.

In Lawrence County, until about 2006, we had paper ballots (like yours) in which we darkened ovals which represented our vote choices. At the end of the day, the ballots from all of the precincts were delivered to the courthouse where they were fed into electronic readers. In or around 2006, when the Lawrence County commissioners met to consider changing to electronic voting machines which would leave no paper-ballot trail, I spoke out at a commissioner's meeting to voice my disapproval to such a changeover. Of course, the Republican-controlled commissioners' board approved the changeover to electronic machines by which the vote counts could not be audited. I am grateful for Pennsylvania's present move to voting machines which leave a paper-ballot vote trail subject to physical recounting, if deemed necessary.

[JoeOtterbein]

6. Another PA DUer born in 1956?

I love that I was born in the year of the Monkey! (1956)

[John1956PA]

7. "Fire Monkey" to be exact.

http://astrologyk.com/zodiac/chinese/year/1956

Those born between February 12, 1956 and January 30, 1957 are members of the Fire Monkey Chinese Zodiac sign. The MONKEYS are mischievous, vain, and clever. Their most prized traits are originality, creativity, and education. People adore Monkeys for their wit, high intelligence, and interest in world affairs. Older and wiser Monkeys are able to channel their energetic and rich imaginations into the solving of complex problems. Monkeys people can succeed in professions such as business, trade, law, stocks, industry and politics.

[JoeOtterbein]

8. Cool! Thanks!

[gelsdorf]

9. And another here

been a Pa liberal since 56

[JoeOtterbein]

12. Really Cool!

[Freddie]

13. And another one here!

‘Twas a good year to be born in PA!
Voting later today.

[JoeOtterbein]

15. Yep!

First time I felt like I really voted since the old lever machines!

[flamin lib]

4. Believe it or not Texas of all places has this system.

It does a number of things including ridding us of precinct location voting. The machine generates a custom ballot for each of 3000 + precincts so eventually you will be able to vote in early voting in Houston when you live and are registered in El Paso and election day voting may pass by the wayside entirely.

There's a lot going for it. It has the advantages of speed and accuracy in counting and cost savings of excess ballot printing and it eases the burden on volunteer election workers for securing and counting every ballot used or not. It's financially incentivised because one blank ballot replaces the need to print excess ballots for each precinct. It's also voter integrity incentivised because any voting location can be audited by counting paper ballots vs the machine count.

[DeminPennswoods]

11. We still have precincts, but the legislature just passed

a bill supported by Gov Wolf that will ease restrictions on absentee ballots among other things, meaning voting by mail will be much easier.

[Hangdog Slim]

16. Me too!

I voted bright and early this morning at my polling place (an old Lutheran church) here in Northampton county. I am happy to report that I was the first voter on our new paper ballot machine and I can tell you I was proud to vote a straight Democrat ticket in a fairly red part of the Lehigh Valley.