My problems voting today

So I went to vote this morning at about 9:00. It just so happened that the rest of my family went at the same time (so that is a total of 4 of us with the same last name at the same time). They took my id and looked me up and printed out my sister's info for me to sign certifying that it was me - while they simultaneously printed the same info on the other computer for her to sign. It took me at least 10 minutes of me saying that it wasn't me before they would believe me and fix the error - the woman was insisting that I sign the receipt before I had even had a chance to look at it, and then would not, or could not, understand that there had been an error. I finally had 4 or 5 election officials standing over me before I could get them to understand that there was a problem. This is while they were holding my id and could clearly see that I had a different name. This worries me for two major reasons - first, how many people read those receipts all that closely? There could be any number of errors without us realizing it. Secondly, there could have been severe penalties, at best both of our votes would have been thrown out, at worst one of us would be accused of voter fraud and could have faced legal action.

Then when I finally got to the machine to vote, the poll worker kept standing by my shoulder - there were no curtains or anything to make sure there was any privacy in the voting - which just really bothers me. The machine also kept acting strange - changing my vote after I'd hit it, my sleeve hit something and everything went blank and I had to start over, I would hit next page and the machine went to the previous page...that sort of thing. It was amazingly frustrating, and I went over everything 4 times before I hit submit, but I can't help but be suspicious about what actually went through. I would like to know why, if they can print receipts to certify who voted, why they can print receipts of the ballot. The whole thing felt fishy. Needless to say, I walked out of the polling place shaky and freaked out.

On top of it all the poll workers were rude and unhelpful, giving out the minimum of info and then yelling at people if they didn't know what they were doing - these are new machines and no one is comfortable with them yet, there should have been an effort to at least be polite. It made me go right into work and ask for the day of the general elections so I can volunteer to work the polls myself. Now if anyone could let me know how to do that I would really appreciate it.

My sister and I are also writing to complain to the Board of Elections, and to the papers, but is there something else we should be doing? Thanks in advance!

Voter Empowerment Hotline:

1-888-678-VOTE

Voters can call this number to report any problems they encounter at the polls and to have their election-law questions answered.

I've never had to show id. Seems weird not to, though.

I had no problems. I was the first voter at my polling place, but no curtains either.

but I don't know 'bout Maryland.

if you registered to vote by mail and have not voted for the first time and possibly when you are an inactive (have not voted for a long time) voter. Otherwise it is not required.

I thought Erlich was getting rid of them? Maybe it just hasn't happened yet. I talked to a couple of poll workers about it today and neither of them knew there had been problems with the machines!
On a brighter note...I live in a very red area and at 4:30 this afternoon when I voted..the running totals of voters for each party showed that about 25 percent more Dems had turned out than repukes.

I would definitely call my representative's office also unless he/she is a repuke then forget it.

just about everyone in MD has admitted these machines are flawed and the primaries proved it, but it doesn't look like anything is going to change.

Whether or not you speak Spanish.

Crazy.