Old People and Computers

There have been many criticisms of elctronic voting machines- no paper trail, machine failures, switching votes, etc. One that isn't brought up enough is that election workers, average age 73, don't have the slightest idea of how to use computers. This situation is explained in today's Washington Post:

Goodman, a former NBC television news producer who lives near Rockville, said he found the jargon of the training session offered by the county Board of Elections incomprehensible and the technology overwhelming. It wasn't long before his eagerness hardened to frustration as he realized the job of check-in judge was going to be a lot harder than he thought.

He's no computer whiz, but given a bit more time he could manage, he said. In a single three-hour class, "there was no way to absorb all that," he said.
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State officials have called for additional training, but some local elections administrators say the sessions aren't nearly long enough.

I think we should do a lot more," said Robert J. Antonetti Sr., the Prince George's interim elections administrator. He added that many of the judges find the new technology "mind-boggling." The county has held training sessions almost nightly and twice on Saturdays, he said.
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Later, when the instructor, Belinda Lee, asked the class to plug in the ethernet line, some stared blankly at the tangle of wires in front of them until she told them it was the one that looks like a telephone cord.

"Oy vey!" an exasperated Goodman blurted out.

During a break, trainee Joseph Burke, 80, of Chevy Chase thumbed through the thick three-ring binder he will have to become familiar with before Tuesday.

"That's a lot of stuff they threw at us," he said. "It's going to take some more studying."

Anthony DiLullo, 67, of Bethesda was comforted only by the fact that another check-in judge would be working the polls with him Election Day. "I hope the other person knows more than I do," he said.

Having gone through teaching my mother and my grandmother how to use a computer, I can tell you that older people get very confused very quickly when discussing computers. I think using computers is like learning a language: if you learn while you are young, it's easy and intuitive; if you are older, then it's foreign and confusing. Thankfully they are trying to recruit high school students to do it. They at least will know how to plug in the machines.

I feel sorry for all the trainers who had to instruct the poll workers. The choruses of "Slow down!", "I'm confused!" and "I don't see any 'any' key!" must have been deafening.