Back from Voting

I just cast my vote in Ohio to repeal SB5 (and restore collective bargaining rights for teachers and other public workers) and to fund the Kent Free Library (via a new levy).

The polling station workers were very friendly, and one fellow was curious about how I came to be named Woodrow (It was from my Uncle Woodrow Wilson Head. I am proud to carry his name forward).

It was the first time that I had voted on an electronic voting machine. The station had four Diebold machines, each with a programmable voter card and built-in printer for generating a saved receipt for recounts.

Compared with the horror stories that I had heard about electronic voting machines, I thought that the machine that I used worked well and I was very happy to see a paper trail (that I could spy through a magnifying window) generated.

However, I do not know if the kind of Diebold machine that I used is one of those that Argonne National Laboratory identified as easily hackable [read about it on Salon here, and on Voice of America’s website here].

Published by Jason W. Ellis

I am an Associate Professor of English at the New York City College of Technology, CUNY whose teaching includes composition and technical communication, and research focuses on science fiction, neuroscience, and digital technology. Also, I direct the B.S. in Professional and Technical Writing Program and coordinate the City Tech Science Fiction Collection, which holds more than 600 linear feet of magazines, anthologies, novels, and research publications.