# HOW did you vote today?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-vote-today/559257
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [November 2, 2010, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-vote-today/559257 "2010-11-02T21:36:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2010, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-vote-today/559257/21 "2010-11-02T23:18:57Z")
Paper ballot, using the “complete the arrow” optical scan system.
---
### Author:  [@pinkyvee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkyvee)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2010, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-vote-today/559257/22 "2010-11-02T23:20:20Z")
> [@suranyi](#):
>
> Paper ballot, using the “complete the arrow” optical scan system.
Same here.
---
### Author:  [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2010, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-vote-today/559257/23 "2010-11-02T23:21:13Z")
Electronic touch-screen in Indiana.
---
### Author:  [@CyclopticXander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CyclopticXander)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2010, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-vote-today/559257/24 "2010-11-02T23:26:33Z")
Electronic touch screen. I know there are fears about paper trail and all that, but as far as speed, ease, and convenience are concerned these voting machines take the cake for me.
By the way. There is a paper printout from the machine at the end of the day. It is true that you don’t have a paper means of going back vote by vote, but there is a hard copy of the results so there can be no electronic manipulation after the fact.
---
### Author:  [@MizTina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MizTina)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2010, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-vote-today/559257/25 "2010-11-02T23:43:58Z")
Colorado mail in ballot the day after I received it, two weeks ago or so, it was a fill in the arrow type ballots mentioned previously.
---
### Author:  [@SanibelMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanibelMan)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2010, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-vote-today/559257/26 "2010-11-02T23:47:04Z")
“Complete the arrow” optical scan here too.
---
### Author:  [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2010, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-vote-today/559257/27 "2010-11-02T23:48:38Z")
I had a choice of scantron or electronic, and I chose electronic. It was a Diebold, but there was a paper trail, which I appreciated.
---
### Author:  [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2010, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-vote-today/559257/28 "2010-11-02T23:58:00Z")
Polling place. Ink on card (“complete the arrow”), oops, there’s a back, fill that out too. Scanner.
---
### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2010, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-vote-today/559257/29 "2010-11-03T01:10:22Z")
I had a choice. There was one electronic machine, and about a dozen paper machines. I chose electronic.
---
### Author:  [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2010, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-vote-today/559257/30 "2010-11-03T01:15:48Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Bubble-in sheet, filled in by hand at a shaky privacy booth, and then fed into a machine that scanned it to verify it was valid and dropped it into a box below. All the convenience of electronic voting, all of the transparency and security of a paper trail. I can’t imagine why anyone does it any other way.
I am under the impression that all of New York uses this system; it is indeed what I used. The ballot design could perhaps use some work; the spreadsheet or matrix style is simple enough for me but reports are that it confuses others. I’ve seen complaints that the type is too small as well. I don’t think I saw an option for easy straight-ticket voting on the ballot either.
---
### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2010, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-vote-today/559257/31 "2010-11-03T02:39:02Z")
> [@](#):
>
> By the way. There is a paper printout from the machine at the end of the day. It is true that you don’t have a paper means of going back vote by vote, but there is a hard copy of the results so there can be no electronic manipulation after the fact.
Can you see your portion of the printout while you’re still in the booth? Because without that, there’s no paper trail. It’s not any harder to lie twice than it is to lie once.
---
### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2010, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-vote-today/559257/32 "2010-11-03T02:44:47Z")
My election office stateside sent me a paper ballot, which I filled out and mailed back. The ballot was of the fill-in-the-squares type, with blue or black ink (I used black). This was all back in September.
---
### Author:  [@RollOutTheBarrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RollOutTheBarrel)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2010, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-vote-today/559257/33 "2010-11-03T02:59:18Z")
I used the fill-in-the-bubble kind. I fed it into a scanner when I had finished filling it out. The scanner was a first for me. The last time I used that kind of ballot, I put it in an envelope and dropped it in a ballot box.
---
### Author:  [@moejoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moejoe)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2010, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-vote-today/559257/34 "2010-11-03T03:04:37Z")
> [@pinkyvee](#):
>
> Same here.
Me too, paper ballot, and I did not steal the pen on the way out.
---
### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2010, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-vote-today/559257/35 "2010-11-03T03:32:18Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Me too, paper ballot, and I did not steal the pen on the way out.
That was apparently an issue at my polling place: They were very glad to see that I had my own pen, since theirs had been disappearing.
---
### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2010, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-vote-today/559257/36 "2010-11-04T09:56:37Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Can you see your portion of the printout while you’re still in the booth? Because without that, there’s no paper trail. It’s not any harder to lie twice than it is to lie once.
Yes. At least, I could last year. It was kinda fun to watch, especially if you changed your mind, as it then had to go back and mark out your previous vote. Not that there were really any booths, anyways.
This year, as I’ve mentioned often here, I went with an absentee ballot. It was the kind where you fill in the ovals.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-vote-today/559257.md?page=1)