New digitial voting machines to get preview

 

By: David Campbell , Staff Writer
03/30/2004

 

"Big Gray," after more than 50 years of faithful service, heading for retirement.

   Mercer County's new digital voting machines, which replace the cumbersome lever-style machines used by municipalities in elections since the 1950s, will be on display at Princeton Township Hall on Wednesday and Thursday.
   "It's been a long time coming," said Township Clerk Linda McDermott. "It's nice to see it's finally come to fruition."
   The county budgeted about $4.2 million to buy 600 state-of-the-art voting machines.
   "You can imagine, it's a bit of a financial undertaking, but in the long run I think it will be worth it," Ms. McDermott continued. "It's an exciting time for elections as far as the county is concerned."
   Manufactured by New York-based Sequoia Voting Systems, the new machines were brought in to comply with a federal mandate issued after the election debacle in Florida during the 2000 presidential race, said Jack Mozloom, aide to the Mercer County clerk.
   "Virtually the entire country agreed we had to do something to upgrade the election system," Mr. Mozloom said.
   The old voting machines, nicknamed by some "Big Gray" or "Old Faithful," had been used in the county since 1951, the clerk's aide said. Voters cast their ballots using the 800-pound industrial-gray machines for the last time in the November 2003 general election, bringing an end to an era of sorts.
   The new machines, called the Sequoia Advantage, use a touch-screen technology that approximates the old voting machines in terms of appearance and functions. Voters will still step behind a curtain to cast their ballots, but instead of pulling a lever, they register their picks on candidates and public questions using a screen that is virtually identical to the sample ballot that comes in the mail.
   In the wake of the 2000 election fiasco, the county formed a study group of various officials in the election process to come up with a recommendation on new technology, Mr. Mozloom continued.
   After reviewing various models by different manufacturers, the panel settled on the Sequoia Advantage as the best choice for voters and poll workers making the switchover from the days of "Big Gray." Ten of the state's 21 counties are using the model, the aide said.
   "They sought a voting machine that preserved the voting experience of the last generations," Mr. Mozloom explained. "They wanted this transition to the new technology to be fairly easy on voters, and poll workers for that matter."
   The Sequoia Advantage will reduce the amount of paperwork poll workers and municipal and county clerks must process, which lightens the workload and lessens the chance for human error.
   Past methods were cumbersome to say the least, requiring vote results to be handwritten on tally sheets and faxed in to the county, Mr. Mozloom said. The new computerized machines put an end to that.
   They print out a tally of election results at the close of polling. Data are stored on tamper-proof cartridges that are then removed and transported to the county clerk to be scanned electronically into the system. A long-term goal is to provide scanners at the local clerk's offices also, the county aide said.
   "This is the first election these machines will be used countywide," Mr. Mozloom said. "Our concern is that voters and poll workers are comfortable with the machine."
   Princeton Township Attorney Edwin Schmierer said the old lever-style machines were too heavy and potentially damaging to the slate floor of the new Township Hall for the municipal site to be an official polling place — but no more.
   For the upcoming primary election in June, when the new machines will be used extensively for the first time in the township, voting districts 10 and 14 will move to Township Hall from their former location at Mercer Engine Co. No. 3 across the street from the Municipal Complex, Ms. McDermott said.
   The Sequoia machines are also expected to be used in the April 20 school board elections in Princeton. The county will be giving instruction this week to poll workers on use of the new machines, the township clerk said.
   "I'm absolutely looking forward to the new machines," she said. "It's been a long time coming, and I think people will be very pleased."