20

Today's (Nov 5, 2024) online edition of the New York Times has an image showing electronic voting booths in a polling station in Brooklyn, New York. (original URL of NYT image)

Voting in New York

The booths have screens which prevent looking into the booth from the side, but they are open to the room (and not e.g. to a wall or large screen) so that suitably positioned onlookers can see what is going on. Indeed, there is one person in the picture who will likely have at least a partial view of a booth where voting is going on at that moment. Additionally, a couple is seen together in front of the same voting machine.

In Germany, this would not be permitted. While the general air here in the polling stations is typically relaxed and friendly, the secrecy of the vote is strictly observed. Booths are open towards a wall, and nobody can be in that space when it is occupied. You certainly cannot go to the booth together. These procedures are strictly monitored and enforced.

Now the referenced image does not appear to show anything nefarious but the secrecy is there for a reason: It precludes the possibility to buy votes, eliminates peer pressure for example in a marriage etc.

Article II, section 7 of the constitution of New York says (emphasis by me):

All elections by the citizens [...] shall be by [some method] prescribed by law, provided that secrecy in voting be preserved.

Does "all" not include presidential elections, or is this simply not taken seriously?

Improve this question
0

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
46

I don't think that's a machine for marking your voting choices (i.e. electronic voting).

Note the woman walking towards it in the middle is holding what appears to be a paper ballot. The machine likely is for collecting and securing the paper ballot. I've snipped part of the image and drawn an arrow so you can see where there's a slot in the top for the paper ballot.

Ballot slot

It might also scan and count the ballot.

As to secrecy, places that use this sort of ballot system will provide optional sleeves to keep people from seeing how you marked the ballot while you take it to the counting machine. This article on NYC voting shows a man holding the privacy sleeve NY provides

Ballot privacy sleeve

Improve this answer
11
  • 12
    I lived in Brooklyn until very recently and have used these machines before. This answer is exactly correct. There are separate booths where your back is to the wall and other sides are covered where you can fill out a paper ballot with a pen, and then you carry it in a privacy sleeve over to these machines to insert the ballot.
    – Esther
    Commented Nov 5 at 14:00
  • 4
    Can confirm (NY voter). When you enter a NY polling place, a poll worker gives you a paper ballot in a folder. You vote in a separate area at a booth with privacy walls (not pictured). After voting, you return your ballot to the folder. The machine pictured counts your vote when you insert the ballot into the slot. The ballots are often inserted upside-down, so it's likely that the person in the photo couldn't read the ballot anyway.
    – BastionGamma
    Commented Nov 5 at 14:03
  • 3
    @Barmar Other than administrative operation, the screen normally shows "ballot accepted." If there's a problem, like it can't decipher a bubble, or you overvoted, the screen will give the option to either accept the ballot anyway where it gets dropped in a separate manual processing bin, or the voter can elect to eject the ballot and fill out another.
    – user71659
    Commented Nov 5 at 21:28
  • 15
    Doesn't the optionality of the privacy screen violate privacy to some extent already? The decision about whether someone would want to use it or not, whether they care about possibly being seen or not, could be revealing in some cases. A bought voter, for example, could be told not to use it so that someone can take a glance at the ballot.
    – Neinstein
    Commented Nov 5 at 23:28
  • 6
    @Neinstein: true, but in much of the US a bought voter can vote by mail, where the would-be buyer can oversee the entire process, including dropping the ballot in a mailbox.
    – 264 champagne bottles on ice
    Commented Nov 6 at 1:59
20

That's a scanner + ballot box. You can see "ballot box" printed underneath next to the yellow seals.

enter image description here

They don't allow someone to obscure the ballot box itself with a screen in Germany, do they? Because someone could insert whatever they want into the box then. Anything from multiple ballots to something to destroy the votes already in the box. (Having said this, the latter was used as a form of protest in Russia--dropping some ink into the box.)

They have bunch of instructional videos about the thingy (it's a DS200 scanner): how to use as a voter; how to close election day etc. It's also used in other east coast states like Virginia. Yeah, some compromises had to be made for "counting as they're inserted" speed -- or in official ad "This system allows for paper ballots to be immediately tabulated at your polling site".

Someone (rude) could peek over one's shoulder as the ballot is inserted, but from another of those videos, a waiting voter isn't allowed closer than five feet while another voter is operating the scanner. How closely this rule is followed is hard for me to say. But assistance by site staff is allowed and even encouraged for voters who have problems with the scanner. Staff could probably rather easily see the ballot in such assistance circumstances.

Improve this answer
5
  • 1
    Interestingly one can find all the US locations where this scanner model is used verifiedvoting.org/verifier/#mode/search/year/2024/model/DS200
    – 264 champagne bottles on ice
    Commented Nov 5 at 15:38
  • 5
    "They don't allow someone to obscure the ballot box itself with a screen in Germany?" – The ballot box is placed right in the middle of the staff table, and normally it is guarded by one person, blocking the insertion slot with a sheet of paper. Only when the keeper of the voters register anounces that the voter has been properly cleared, the slot will be shortly uncovered. Voters often photograph the moment they insert the ballot, because it is the iconic photo all politicians do.
    – ccprog
    Commented Nov 5 at 23:50
  • @ccprog Also my experience, except that the voter is "cleared" (I suppose you mean: Deemed permitted to vote per register and ID) before they even get the ballot. After that, no further step is necessary: One walks up to the box with the filled ballot (which is either in an envelope or, more recently, folded with the check boxes n the inside to guarantee privacy), the box guard removes their paper or hand or whatever and you drop the ballot.
    – Peter - Reinstate Monica
    Commented Nov 8 at 11:39
  • @Peter-ReinstateMonica I know this is the procedure used in a lot of polling stations, but it contradicts the rules set out in § 56 Bundeswahlordnung, especially section (4). Also, in all training sessions for election helpers I have ever attended, we were warned that not identifying the voter the moment he tries to drop his ballot into the box is an integrity risk.
    – ccprog
    Commented Nov 8 at 16:16
  • @ccprog You know, suddenly I'm not sure... glad this is not a criminal trial.
    – Peter - Reinstate Monica
    Commented Nov 8 at 17:25

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .