New high-tech purchase will make voting easier

By Todd Jackson

Roanokers will soon enter the new age of computer voting.

    Following months of testing out different types of products, the city Electoral Board has decided to buy $600,000 worth of iVotronic touch screen voting machines. Registrar Beryl Brooks said the new system should be in place for the city's May 4 municipal election. The city must get approval from the U.S. Department of Justice, and Brooks said she has already made a request and expects it to be granted.

    Using the electronic system for the first time to elect city council members and a mayor will be preferable to introducing them in November during a U.S. presidential contest that will draw more interest and more voters, she said.

    The city will purchase 133 of the devices and all of the city's 32 precincts will go high-tech. Voters won't stand behind a curtain and pull the old manual-lever machines anymore. Instead, they will simply touch a computer screen. The system is multilingual, meets the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act, has an audio ballot feature for the visually impaired and allows voters to securely cast their vote.

    The computers, which can be kept in a briefcase, will store the voting data and spit out results on command.

    Roanoke will join a growing list of localities, both next door, such as Roanoke County, and nationwide, that are switching to electronic voting. The iVotronic machines - built by ES&S Systems of Omaha, Neb. - meet the requirements of the Help America Vote Act of 2002, which offers federal funding for localities to replace punch card and lever voting systems that have created problems in recent years.

    In Virginia, the iVotronic devices are already used by Pulaski County, New Kent County and Winchester, according to information provided by ES&S. The company said it supplies voting machines for 2,674 localities in the United States and abroad.

    Gilbert Butler, a member of Roanoke's Electoral Board, said he and others involved in the city's ion process believe the iVotronic machines were the most user-friendly. "Each system has its pluses and minuses, including the cost," he said. "It's a complicated decision."

    Brooks said the city will pay $500,000 for the new machines and will get about $100,00 in federal funding.

    Butler said the city will save money because it won't have to pay warehouse and moving costs for its old manual-lever machines.

    Because of those savings, the new electronic system should pay for itself in 10 years or less, he said.