Voters in Corydon and Sergeant townships will decide Tuesday
whether to install an electronic voting system at polling places as
part of a county-wide effort to streamline the election
process.
The referendum will be placed on the municipal election ballot
in those areas for the upcoming general election – the electronic
version was voted down by residents during the 2004 presidential
election.
An electronic voting system is slated to be in place across the
county by the next primary election, which is part of the
state-mandated Help America Vote Act. The county currently uses
lever-type automatic voting machines.
Voters in Corydon and Sergeant townships – which currently cast
choices on paper ballots – have received a mailing postmarked Oct.
17 from the McKean County Board of Elections regarding the
issue.
There are a total of 238 registered voters in Corydon Township
and 120 in Sergeant Township. In the 2004 election, Corydon
Township residents voted down the electronic system by four votes;
there was a wider margin in Sergeant Township.
“They (residents) have a choice of whether they want to go
electronic or not,” Director of Elections Judy Ordiway said. “If
the measure is voted down again, they will stick with the paper
ballots. However, they will still have to put one HAVA device in
place for handicap accessibility.”
Congress passed HAVA in October 2002. The legislation called for
the creation of the United States Election Assistance Commission,
the panel that provides guidelines to the states. The panel
provided its first draft of voting systems’ guidelines in May.
According to Ordiway, the county has a total of $320,000 set
aside in state grant money for the new electronic machines, adding
each voting district has been allotted $8,000. Ordiway said there
are currently 40 districts in the county which use the lever
system.
Ordiway said the grant money needs to be encumbered by the
county by Dec. 31.
The commissioners have investigated a handful of options for the
electronic machines, including the UniLect (Patriot), Diebold and
Electronic Systems Software (ESS) systems. Ordiway said the UniLect
system has been decertified by the state, while both the Diebold
and ESS systems are in pending status.
“They are all touch screen, direct recording devices with a
voter-verifying paper trail,” Ordiway said. “They seem to be pretty
user-friendly.”
Ordiway said the electronic systems are a little larger than a
suitcase, with a more rectangular screen.
When the voter goes to cast his or her choices, they simply
press the area where the candidate’s name is located and it will
activate the system and record that candidate’s name. The choice
can be deactivated by retouching the square. Another area is
touched to activate the system to go to the next page of
candidates, and so forth.
Ordiway said the system will also tell a voter if he or she has
“undervoted,” or not voted, for all the available races. A button
is then cast to finalize the vote, and a verifiable document will
print off the side of the system.
“It leaves an audit trail and is good for verifying how a voter
cast their ballot,” Ordiway said. “It’s also used for recount
purposes, not for the official tabulation of votes.” The official
county tabulation will still be done at the elections office at the
courthouse, Ordiway said.
In regards to write-in candidates, Ordiway said there is a touch
screen area that comes up, along with a keyboard which will be used
to type in the person’s name. At the end of election day, the
machine will automatically tabulate the results for election
officials.
“Election officers will just be able to press a button and the
tabulations will come out the back like a cash register receipt,”
Ordiway said. “In the new system, voters will actually be able to
review their choices twice.”
The director also said an educational package will be available
to familiarize voters to the new system.
Ordiway said the old lever machines might still have to be used
another time, as rumblings from Harrisburg have indicated a special
election could be held in March regarding Act 72, the Homeowner Tax
Relief Act, which would provide tax relief to homeowners statewide
through school taxes.
All told, there are 27,060 registered voters for Tuesday’s
general election, according to Ordiway, adding the figure is up
from the primary when 26,941 voters were eligible to cast their
choices.
