Bob CollinsVia @pbsengage on Twitter, I was reminded today of how difficult it used to be to vote in America.
I’ve actually found myself wondering if my vote was counted the first time I used one of these machines (in the ’70s). After flipping all the buttons, you pulled a lever that would register your vote and open the curtain. I didn’t know that. So I flipped all the appropriate levers down, assuming that registered my vote, flipped it back up, and left.
According to a site that documents the history of voting machines, these were first used in the late 1890s, were known as the Meyers Automatic Booth and were last used by 27% of voters in the 1996 presidential election.
