George,

I vote at Brownsville Elementary in Crozet. Our voting is done by push button technology. Everything went fine until I got to the last question which was one of the amendments. (Sorry I can't remember if it was the one about the lottery or the one about hunting, but it was the one at the far right of the machine). When I pushed the button beside "No" the machine registered my vote as a "Yes." I tried this a couple of more times and got the same result. Finally, I poked my head outside the curtain and asked the "attendant" what I should do to make the machine register my vote. He explained how the voting procedure worked, assuming I guess, that I simply wasn't familiar with the process. I explained that I understood what I was supposed to do, but that whenever I made my choice, the opposite choice lit up. He suggested then that I should intentionally push the wrong button (the one that that was still lit up) to see if that would clear the arrow. That worked....I punched "Yes," the arrow cleared and then when I pushed "No" the machine correctly registered my vote. I informed him that the machine was now working properly. He didn't seem overly concerned. In retrospect, I think I should have mentioned something to another official, but I did not. My concern is that others may have encountered the same problem and not noticed that their vote was registered incorrectly and submitted their vote. Or, they may have been too frustrated or embarrassed to ask for assistance and just let it go.

Millie Fife (electronic mail, November 18, 2000).