For over a year and a half, America’s political landscape has been geared toward Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016. Before you race to your polling place (because you’ll be oh so excited to let this election season die, right?), know what’ll be in store for you.
The city of Chicago employs two different voting types: touchscreen and optical-scan voting. There’s no measly “fill in the circle” ballots for us. We’re all about the arrows and computers.
Optical scan ballots are a type of paper ballot. Next to each candidate’s name, there will be an arrow with the center portion blank. To cast your vote, complete the line from one end of an arrow to the other next to your preferred candidate’s name with a pen provided by an election judge—no bright pink gel pens, this isn’t the fifth grade.
You don’t need to make the line as thick as the two ends of the arrow. One solid line will do. Once you’ve finished marking your ballot, an election judge will scan it through a machine that looks kind of like a large fax machine—this is the “optical scan” part. Voila, you’ve done your civic duty.
For the touchscreen voting systems, you don’t get to play any fun connect-the-dots game. Once you’ve checked in with an election judge, he or she will give you a voter card, which you’ll insert into the yellow slot at the bottom right of the machine until you feel it click into place.
For each office, touch the box next to your preferred candidate’s name, making sure that it gets marked with an “X.” If you make a mistake or have a sudden change of heart, you can change your vote by touching the same candidate once more to de-select before selecting the candidate you actually want. Once you’ve scrolled through each office on the ballot, you’ll be able to review a paper record of your ballot (with the option to “Return to Ballot” to fix any mistakes). Once you’re done reviewing, or if you just want to say “[bleep] it” and be done, select “Cast Ballot.” You done did it.
Now sit back and relax for another two years before the midterms come around. Ah, democracy.
@shelbielbostedt | sbostedt@redeyechicago.com
