How Was Your Voting Experience?

Where was everybody? There was a very small voter turnout so the lines were short, which made it pleasant. The actual procedure of filling out a voter ballot I found to be complicated and confusing. Go back to the hand lever machines!

– Moshe B.

Pretty uneventful. The one gripe that many people were mentioning while I was at the polls was the fact that the proposals were on the back of the page. People were unaware that they had to turn the page over and missed the opportunity to vote on the proposals.

– Mrs. Rivky P.

My daughter, a high school senior, joined me; we went as she was leaving for school in the morning. Marking the paper ballot is something I’m getting used to, though I like the old-fashioned booths much better. It disturbed me greatly that there was no note on the bottom of Side A that voters should flip it over to look at side B. Considering how many other superfluous signs were around I wonder why this was overlooked.

Also regarding the proposals — unless you had done your homework, there was no information to help you understand the ramifications of any of them.

So that was it, 15 minutes from start to finish.

– Ellen A.

Very unsatisfied with the system — tiny words on this long paper. Was looking for proposals and finally, in the smallest words, they were on the back of the page. Didn’t bother reading it. Just knew that I wanted “no” for the first one. Skipped the rest. I needed my glasses, but my elderly father, k”ah, wasn’t told to bring his magnifying glass. The old system with levers and large words was much better. I can’t believe that in this high-tech day and age they haven’t come up with a better system.

I went with a friend to our polling place and she was told her place changed. Why weren’t notices sent out with changes?

– Name withheld

I went to vote with my husband at about 8:30 p.m. Upon arrival we saw we would be there awhile, as the lines were out the door. As it is the nature of human beings to converse with one another while waiting on any lines, even though you do not know who is waiting with you, I too began schmoozing with people about the candidates. I realized I was not alone in thinking that I have never yet gone to vote and been so ill-informed about the candidates, not knowing who I should vote for, not knowing their platforms. Many people standing there with me felt the same way. For the most part we all felt it was a very dead-beat campaign with no flair, no grabbing the public interest. I know, to a certain extent, the fault lies with oneself for not reading up on all that was going on but every race so far always got our attention, and this time it did not. I have to thank my husband for going with me because he helped me out when having to choose the names on the ballot.

– Perri W.

I voted about midday at the Public School on 59th Street and 10th Avenue. When I asked the poll worker how busy it was she said, “Brisk.” The poll worker who gave the folder was polite, and there was almost no wait. I found the referendum questions on the ballot to be in very small letters and hard to read, but to her credit the worker alerted me to the referendum questions.

However at the scanner, the lady asked me for the ballot so she could scan it, something she isn’t supposed to do. I insisted on doing it myself: It is supposed to be a secret ballot. I voted for Lhota, Hynes, Greenfield, and wrote in my wife’s name for Public Advocate. (She returned the favor and wrote in my name when she voted. In the end we tied and neither of us won.)

– Name withheld

There were more employees than voters. I was in and out in less than eight minutes, which was wonderful. The only drawback was that the wording was very small. I would definitely appreciate going back to the old system.

– Name withheld

The paper ballot made the whole thing feel like I was voting in the 80s. It was a long wait until they found each person’s name and wrote out the info, etc. I circled one thing wrong, and then had to wait on the whole line again, which would not happen if it was a computerized or lever ballot. I heard a lot of people complaining that they couldn’t read the words, since everything was so small. It was not a good voting experience.

– Chanie W.

There were plenty of personnel to help us around and everyone was very polite.

I prefer the old ballot system where you pushed the buttons. It was much larger and clearer. This ballot was hard to read.

I had another problem: The lists that indicated the changing of voting sites was incorrect. They had indicated that people who voted at certain sites were changed to other sites, but not everyone at the old site was changed. ….  It depended on the district. I went to the new site and was redirected back to the old site.

– Name withheld

When I got to Fort Hamilton and 59th Street where my polling site was, there was only one person on the street handing out flyers. It seemed kind of quiet, even though it was already close to 10 a.m. I expected more excitement — after all, we were voting for a new Mayor.

After registering and being directed to a booth, I put on my glasses so I could read the very small print and tried to decipher the language used to describe the proposals. I found myself wishing I had educated myself more about the issues at hand, and about the judges’ histories. I voted blindly, hoping I wasn’t reinstating a judge who could do more harm than good.

I learned a very important lesson however: If I take the time to vote I should at least know what and who I’m voting for.                                                        – Esther H.

I felt as if I were in a third-world country. Not voting machines, but pieces of paper that you had to check off with a pen. The six propositions were printed in small font, hardly readable; the fact that I was offered a magnifying glass so I could read them faster and not hold up the long lines made me want to laugh, and then cry. The lines were indeed long. The people working to sign you in and supervise your scanning the paper ballot appeared to be overwhelmed, and the fact that there were only six cardboard booths in which voters could peruse the list of candidates and read the proposals made the process of voting take much too long and resulted in frazzled nerves. The elderly and ill must have been appalled, and I was sorry for the many parents who had brought along their children to impress upon them how important it was to vote and how the process works. Frankly, it was an embarrassment.

– Name withheld

Many people were confused and made mistakes on their ballots. It was a whole process to give them a new number and ballot to fill out. The workers were nice, but so slow (they had all the time in the world)! What should have technically taken five minutes took half an hour. When you’re rushing to work that’s a long time.

– Leah L.

I felt that I was part of it, and my voice was heard, and my vote counts.

– Lipa S.

I went to vote at my old polling center to find that they moved my polling center (I must’ve missed the notice!) to 5901 13th Avenue…which was some senior center. (I didn’t know it was a federal building!) It was such a pleasant experience! I’m used to massive lines and this was just a breeze.

… I was horrified by the lack of knowledge people have about bringing promotions for candidates into a polling center: In the little cubicle of sorts (I don’t know the name, but it’s the little place where you fill in the ballot) there were flyers from Greenfield and BlockVote…I was horrified and removed them. I saw kids walking around holding flyers — not handing them out, but someone had handed it to them. Baruch Hashem, it didn’t come to anything, but this could’ve been such a chillul Hashem — I don’t know how people don’t know these rules!

– Sarah K.

My polling place was Edward R. Murrow High School. My previous polling place used the archaic lever voting machines. Here, we filled out paper ballots and fed them into an electronic reader. It was much smoother and quicker. I came at 5 p.m. and was out by 5:10 p.m.. As a voter I was frustrated that I could not get enthused about either candidate and, as usual, had to choose between the lesser of two evils. I also felt as though I was in Soviet-era Russia when voting for judges, as the same names appeared on every party line.

– Dovid S.

This article appeared in print on page 23 of the November 7th, 2013 edition of Hamodia.