Photos & Q'ing BY JULIE WIATT

Pat Fleming: "I live in DC, so it's a question about the effectiveness of DC government, of which I'm generally skeptical. I have no reason to believe that the system for voting and recording votes is broken, so I'm reasonably confident that my vote will register properly. And I'm hopeful that a new mayor will make improvements in the general effectiveness of government, which can use some improvement."

James Tyler: "I'm much less confident than I'd like to be. I'd like to have my vote count. I go to the effort to vote each election, and I would like to be confident. I'd rate it about 75 percent confidence. There's substantial uncertainty. I wish I were assured that electronic voting machines, such as Diebold were from organizations that have no political affiliation. I question whether the public knows the true ownership of these firms and whether they might take liberties with our votes."

Diane Tyler: "I don't feel confident that the electronic voting machines are safe from being manipulated. And we're appalled there's no paper trail to verify the vote."

Joan Horn: "I'd just second everything they've said, especially about the need for a paper trail."

Christina Sarlo: "Well, if I were an election judge I'd be more confident. I plan to be one when I graduate from school. I am about 80 percent confident--call it blissful ignorance. We need young people to get involved on election day because they tend to be people who are more comfortable with new technology."

Ted Carter: "Things will improve, but not under this administration. Therefore, I don't have confidence that my vote will be counted accurately."

Linda Dargan [at right]: "I'm very confident because I work at the polls. I think that DC in the last election did a very good job as compared with Montgomery County, and I'm proud of that because I've been working the polls for years. We have training for every election."

Deborah Southerland: "I'm probably not as confident as she is. I probably would give it maybe 60 percent confidence; that's as much confidence as I have. They still have a long way to go. It's still very much an issue how poll machines work. I'm from Cincinnati. A lot of people don't understand the process; they need hands-on training on how the system works. And they'll have to prove to the people that the system can be trusted."

Emily Brecht: "Probably I'm more confident than I should be. I'm very confident that my local polling place [in Takoma Park] is doing the best job they can. I think unfortunately the government doesn't seem to understand the technology that they use, so it's risky."

[NO PHOTOS - camera memory chip failed]:

Tim Stufft: "I'm medium confident. We had problems here with the primary. In terms of fixing it, I think the way we used to vote worked OK. In the end, I'm not sure it matters. It's 2 to 1 democrats in our county. It's still better than anywhere else in the world. Last year I was an election observer in Ethiopia, seeing the debate there as to whether the results were real. Ninety percent voted. I was so excited to see such mass participation. You'd go to this tent, no houses in sight, but 500 people would come there to vote; they'd walk for miles. Each party would have a symbol. They have about 80 parties. The ballot is about 14 by 20 inches, and you mark it with your thumbprint. Everything up to the election was great, but from election day onward it was debatable. In a mature democracy like ours there are problems, but I believe my vote here counts more. Our voting system is the best."

Janelle Stufft: "I'm from Pennsylvania. We've used electronic machines. The old system took longer. We need instant gratification. But for national elections I think they shouldn't announce the results in any states until polls in all the states are closed. I think the count is accurate but I'm not sure it matters which party wins."