Albany Voting Site Sees Voters by the Hundreds
Downtown residents turn up in unprecedented numbers to exercise voting right.
Kellen Riell
Issue date: 11/10/08 Section: Election night
The polls at downtown Albany's Park Avenue School opened at 5:30 on the morning of November 4 and closed at 9:00 PM. In that time, over 300 people entered the school gymnasium to cast their vote.
Charyl Valerio, one of seven inspectors present, was impressed by the turnout. "I can't believe how many people came to vote," she said. "People who never voted in their whole lives turned up."
Young and old alike dropped in to support their chosen candidate. "When you've got 90-year-old women walking up in here, it's incredible," Valerio said.
Altogether, the number of voters who appeared that day was "about double what we usually get," said Joanne Hester, a volunteer inspector.
Two out of the three voting machines available for use that day were of the standard kind, familiar to New Yorkers -- a booth with a lever, a curtain for privacy, and a switch above the name of every candidate. By the inspectors' estimation, these two machines were at least 30 years old.
The third machine, a 2008 model by the name of ES&S Automark, was entirely computerized. The voter inserts a blank paper ballot on which the machine records his vote. Users can input their votes through a touch screen or a hand-held switch. For the blind, a pair of headphones reads the names of the candidates. Those without the use of their limbs can receive a tube into their mouths, and communicate their vote with either a "sip" or "puff" of air.
Of all the voters who came that day, not a single one used the ES&S Automark. "A lot of people were afraid they wouldn't know how to use it," explained one inspector. Even the wheelchair-bound, she said, avoided the Automark in favor of the older models -- this, despite the fact that the newer machine is situated for easier use from a wheelchair.
Soon after 9:00 the votes were tallied. At each of the two lever-operated booths, one inspector read out the vote counts for each candidate in each race, and another inspector marked them down on a large sheet of paper. At the same time, I hurried to record these numbers myself, so that I could call them in afterwards.
A woman came in shortly afterward and made off with both sheets of paper. Moments later I called in the vote counts; it was hardly 10:00.
Charyl Valerio, one of seven inspectors present, was impressed by the turnout. "I can't believe how many people came to vote," she said. "People who never voted in their whole lives turned up."
Young and old alike dropped in to support their chosen candidate. "When you've got 90-year-old women walking up in here, it's incredible," Valerio said.
Altogether, the number of voters who appeared that day was "about double what we usually get," said Joanne Hester, a volunteer inspector.
Two out of the three voting machines available for use that day were of the standard kind, familiar to New Yorkers -- a booth with a lever, a curtain for privacy, and a switch above the name of every candidate. By the inspectors' estimation, these two machines were at least 30 years old.
The third machine, a 2008 model by the name of ES&S Automark, was entirely computerized. The voter inserts a blank paper ballot on which the machine records his vote. Users can input their votes through a touch screen or a hand-held switch. For the blind, a pair of headphones reads the names of the candidates. Those without the use of their limbs can receive a tube into their mouths, and communicate their vote with either a "sip" or "puff" of air.
Of all the voters who came that day, not a single one used the ES&S Automark. "A lot of people were afraid they wouldn't know how to use it," explained one inspector. Even the wheelchair-bound, she said, avoided the Automark in favor of the older models -- this, despite the fact that the newer machine is situated for easier use from a wheelchair.
Soon after 9:00 the votes were tallied. At each of the two lever-operated booths, one inspector read out the vote counts for each candidate in each race, and another inspector marked them down on a large sheet of paper. At the same time, I hurried to record these numbers myself, so that I could call them in afterwards.
A woman came in shortly afterward and made off with both sheets of paper. Moments later I called in the vote counts; it was hardly 10:00.
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