Recently, an organization published a warning to voters to check and double check your selections before depositing your ballot in the “ballot box”, better known as the scanner. I agree.
But what that article failed to do was tell you what to do if your printed ballot doesn’t reflect your wishes. Changes can be made, but they must be made before the ballot is placed in the scanner and counted.
THE MACHINES
The machines used by Bastrop County to make your selections are ballot printing machines, not ballot casting machines. These print the ballot. The only ballot casting machine is the scanner, which counts and stores your ballot as you leave the polling place.
CHECK YOUR CHOICES
As you vote and before you move to the next page on the screen, if you have not made a selection an a race, the ballot-printing machine will notify you that you still have choices to make. You can go back, or if you intended to skip that race, you can move on.
Once you have made all your selections, the ballot-printing machine will provide you with a review of all those choices. Again, you can go back to any race, change your selection, and return to the review.
Your final action on the ballot-printing machines will be to actually print your ballot. Review it again. If it’s right, place it in the scanner to be counted. If it isn’t right, you can still fix it!
GETTING IT RIGHT
All you have to do is notify the Election Judge before you scan your ballot, that you need to vote again. The election judge will “spoil” that ballot and give you another. The “spoiled ballot” will be logged, voided, and placed in an envelope with other spoiled ballots.
There are other reasons for spoiled ballots. Sometimes the bar codes don’t print properly and can’t be read by the scanner. I witnessed that while working as an Elections Clerk.
SCANNING IS FINAL
It’s all well and good to remind people to check their ballots at every step in the process. But, it’s even more important to let people know what to do if there is a problem. Pretty much anything can be rectified before that ballot is scanned. Once it’s scanned and counted, though, it cannot be retrieved. Happy voting!!
One added point: the posting in questions says the voter spoke to a “poll watcher” and also recommends you speak to a “poll watcher” if you have a problem. Don’t do it. Poll watchers cannot speak to voters. That’s a violation of Texas law. Speak to the election judge if you have a concern.