The Voting Experience 02-05-2008
Getting the chance to take part in the voting process doesn’t come around too frequently. It is why when it does come around, it can sometimes be a difficult process–and I’m not talking about making a decision on which candidate to support. The topic of voting machine usability is often talked about and even the UPA has attempted to take on that challenge. But an even greater part of the voting experience exists in how a voting location is structured and presented and how polling volunteers assist voters.
For almost all major elections since I became legal to vote I have voted at a different voting location. That in itself can be a challenging time, between updating my voter registration, to finding the voting location and hoping that I’m on the books. Since the time to vote comes around infrequently voters have little chance to truly become familiar with the process, especially for someone like myself where locations and type of voting machines are always changing. One can only put his faith in proper signage and the kind people who give their time to volunteer to help voters, vote.
Unfortunately, it always seems to go awry. Places such as school gyms are retrofitted to act as voting stations, multiple tables to check in, no one ever truly being sure of where you need to go. And in my case, when looking for assistance, being greeted with words such as:
Oh, here we go again. Another one who doesn’t know.
It is not surprising that often people simply choose to skip the entire process. This is no small feat to fix the problem, yet I’m not sure anyone has really put a concerted effort into actually planning and ultimately implementing changes. The pinnacle of voting location wayfinding seems to only be, “Vote Here” signs. As appreciative everyone is for the volunteers, they are lacking in the proper training to assist voters.
But, as confusing as voting can be sometimes, this is one of the only poor experiences I would say people should trudge through.