Does Oklahoma Have the Best Voting System?
In my opinion, Oklahoma has the best system of any state in the union. Now I don’t claim to be knowledgeable about the equipment used in all states, but I do know about Oklahoma’s.
I started working in elections probably 35 years ago. Back then it was absolutely a thankless, boring, and frustrating job. When I started working, my job was to help count the votes. The inspector, judge, and clerk sat at a desk, signed in voters, and gave them the ballots to which they were entitled, based on the party of their choice. Voters marked an x in a box to indicate their choice of candidates. The ballots were then shoved in a locked, metal box.
The 4 counters sat in the back away from public view. Periodically during the day, the box was brought back to us and the ballots were removed. The counters stacked the ballots neatly and the count began. There were two “markers” and a “caller” and usually the fourth person would watch the process while stringing the counted ballots on a piece of twine. At the end of each count, the stringer would tie up the stack of counted ballots and write, “Count 1” or “Count 2” etc. on the back of the top ballot.
The markers would count aloud in unison behind the caller, who would read off the name of the one voted for on that ballot, and pass the ballot on to the stringer. I can still hear, “Jones, 1, Smith, 3, Williams, tally.” “Tally” indicated five. If at any time the markers were not in agreement, the stringer would have to go back through the ballots currently being strung to verify the proper count for each candidate.
The tally sheets were marked with pencils with red lead in one end and blue in the other. At the beginning of each count, the color opposite the one used on the last count was chosen, in order to keep the counts straight. I never participated in an overall recount while using that method of counting votes, but I can imagine it would have been a nightmare, sorting through all those ballots and lining them up in order of the counts, then recounting them.
Counters were forbidden to reveal how the race was going in our precinct, the idea being that if voters knew who was leading, it might influence their vote.
There were light elections in which only two counters were called to work. There were also many heavy elections in which four counters had their heads down frantically counting votes all day and far into the night. I remember working till 1:30 in the morning at one election.
At some point the election officials in Oklahoma had a stroke of genius. Where our machines came from, I don’t know. I only know they’re the simplest, most efficient, and to my mind, most failure-proof machines imaginable. Our machines are not voting machines, but counting machines, which have a great advantage over voting machines.
At an election, voters are first processed as always before. If a voter comes in and his name is in the book provided by the election board, he is told to sign the book beside his name. If a voter is unknown to us, he may be required to produce identification. But in a town our size, most of the voters are people we have known all our lives, and of course we don’t require identification from them.
If a person’s name is not in the book, even if it is someone we know well, he is asked to produce a voter’s card. If he has a current, legal card, and is registered in our precinct, we call the election board and ask about it. If he has been left out by mistake, he is allowed to vote, but may be required to sign a “challenged voter” form. If a voter has no card and is not in the book, we can call the election board and ask about the voter’s status. More often than not, the election board will tell us the person is registered in a different precinct, and must go there to vote. His name will most likely be in the book at that precinct. But some voters, both known and unknown to us, fail to meet the requirements and we cannot allow them to vote.
Once approved and signed in, a voter is given one or more ballots, depending on what offices and questions are being voted on in that election. Beside each name on the ballot is a short, thick arrow with the middle of it left blank. To vote for a candidate, the voter uses a special black, felt-tip pen provided by the election board to connect the front and back ends of the arrow beside that candidate’s name. Then the voter pushes his ballot into a slot on the counting machine. The ballot can be inserted with the face up or down and either end first. The machine will either catch hold of the ballot and pull it on into the machine and count it immediately, or spit it part-way back out and play a special tune that means, “Uh oh! Something’s wrong here.”
At this point the counting machine will print a message on the tape that records such problems all day. The inspector will read the message on the tape and inform the voter of the problem. Often voters will try to use a different kind of pen to mark their ballots, and the machine will not read it. That can usually be remedied by having the voter mark over the original mark with the designated felt-tip pen. If it’s just an unvoted ballot, as many of ours are, especially on state questions that people are unsure of, the inspector can push a “3” and the machine will go ahead and accept the ballot if the voter so desires. If it has been incorrectly marked, we can have the voter sign a “spoiled ballot” affidavit and issue him a new ballot. The old one is torn up and put in the trash as he watches.
A running count of voters is displayed on the front of the machine, but no information as to how the race is going is available until the machine is cleared out after the polls close.
The machine itself, which is quite heavy, is the size of a medium suitcase, and has a suitcase-type handle with which it is carried. On election day, this machine is fitted on top of a huge blue box which has three compartments inside, separated by fiber board dividers. The box is locked, to be opened only at the end of the day.
A slot on top of the box allows ballots to be dropped from the machine into the box once they are counted by the machine. In the front of the machine is another slot which is covered by a metal door. During the day, should the machine break down or the power fail, the inspector can open the door covering the front slot and voters will place their ballots in the front slot, which puts them in a special compartment of the blue box.
If the power comes back on, those ballots can be taken out and run through the machine after the polls close. If not, the ballots will be placed in a special box and marked to be counted after the equipment is returned to the election board. In all our years of using this machine, however, our precinct has never had to return uncounted ballots to the election board. If a machine fails during the election, someone will come down from the election board and either repair or replace the machine. But again, I don’t recall a time when that has happened in our precinct. As I understand it, should the machine have to be replaced, the “brain” (my word for it) from the first machine would be transferred to the replacement machine. This “brain” is a metal cassette-type affair that is inserted into a special location behind a door on the back of the machine. The day’s votes and other information are stored in that “brain.”
One main advantage to this system is what happens after the polls close. There is no frantic last-minute effort to get the last ballots counted. We can have most forms signed and most of the materials needed to run the election gathered up shortly before the polls close.
Once the polls close, the inspector “zeroes out” the machine by pushing a button on the panel under the door on the back of the machine where the “brain” is located. Instantly the machine starts running out the tape which has the vote totals listed on it. We can run off as many copies of this as needed. One copy goes in the box with the voted ballots, one is posted on the front door glass, one goes to the election board with the “brain,” one is mailed to the state election board in a special envelope, etc.
Once the machine has run all needed tapes, it is unplugged, the “brain” is removed and transferred to a special padded envelope, and the machine is removed from the top of the blue box. The blue box is unlocked and ballots are removed and placed in a special box for counted ballots along with one of the totals tapes, and the used ballot box is sealed for return to the election board. The blue box is disassembled, top section from bottom, partitions removed and placed in the box, and is left at the polling place to be picked up by someone from the county commissioner’s office.
The counting machine, along with the counted ballots and all the materials used to conduct the election, is returned to the county election board.
While all this may not sound as simple as it really is, I know from experience how much easier it is than the way it was done in the past. It would be almost impossible to cheat in an election using this method, and the count is absolutely accurate since it is not subject to human error as it was in the past. On most elections, whether light or extremely heavy, we are ready to leave the polling place thirty minutes after the polls close. What a relief after working those elections that held us captive till the early morning hours!
But in my opinion, the greatest advantage to using Oklahoma’s voting system is that people are never left standing in line because the power has failed, rendering voting machines useless, or because the machines themselves have malfunctioned. With our system, the voting can go on as always, with the voted ballots safely held in their designated storage compartment till power is restored or they are taken to the election board to be run through a counting machine there.
Some states may have election equipment just as efficient as Oklahoma’s, but in my opinion, ours would be hard to beat.
