Council candidate Grace Cangemi arrives at the 8th district polling station (the Senior Citizens’ Center, on Shrewsbury Avenue), presumably to “re-elect” herself. Joe Parrillo of Madison Avenue emerges from a voting booth at the district 4 station, at the United Methodist Church on Broad Street.
Voting was moderate-to-busy at two Red Bank polling stations visited by redbankgreen at midmorning today.
The 4th district had seen about 75 voters come in. Over at the 8th, about 40 citizens had pushed the buttons. Workers at both stations said those numbers were on par with activity seen in the last general election.
Polls are open until 8p. If you intend to vote and need a refresher on using the new-ish touch screens, the link to the Monmouth County online video demonstration for some reason is inoperative. We’re waiting to hear back from the county on whether it’ll be fixed.
Meanwhile, here’s how the machines work:
Instead of pulling a lever to cast a vote, users make their selections on a touch-screen display, touching a button next to the name of the preferred candidate or the answer to a public question. A green X will light up to show the selection. Votes can be changed before all selections are submitted by simply touching the same button again, which turns off the green X.
For write-in votes (‘personal choice selections’ in the nomenclature of the the machines, as though other options were not personal choices), a keyboard is installed in each voting machine. Touch the ‘personal choice’ button on the same line as the office for for which you’re writing in a name. A blinking green X will appear. Then type in the name, using the arrow pointing right to make spaces, and the left arrow to make corrections. Check that you’ve spelled the name correctly, and press ‘enter’ on the keyboard.
After all selections have been made, push the red ‘cast votes’ button on the lower right of the display to submit your choices.
No, the curtain behind you doesn’t automatically open after you’ve cast your votes, as with the old lever machines. This seems to throw some people off.
