Voting machine training begins

by Susie Vasquez
Staff Writer

The last of Douglas County's 160 new computerized voting machines arrived Tuesday.

By Friday, officials were learning the finer points, taking the machines through "acceptance testing," the first in a number of challenges facing Douglas County officials in the rush to get the machines ready for elections this fall. The punch card voting system will be illegal in Nevada as of Sept. 1, said Barbara Reed, Douglas County clerk-treasurer.

Educating workers and the general public is just one of the challenges. Not all machines came equipped with the special printers mandated for use in Nevada, Reed said.

"We opened 20 machines Thursday and 10 of them had the wrong printers," Reed said. "But the retrofits should come in the next two weeks.

"We have a lot of work to do," she said.

Despite the challenges, Reed said she's looking forward to the change. Douglas County voters have been using the same system for more than 30 years.

About the size of a suitcase, these self-contained units include a stand, voting booth and special touch-screen designed to make voting simple and secure.

The highly portable units include wheels for moving them from their climate-controlled storage area to the polls and each has a special self-contained battery pack, good for two to four hours in case of a power failure.

The machines were built by Sequoia Voting Systems, a New York firm.

Voters can easily reverse the system if an error is made and when the vote is right, the push of a button records the information. The computer also warns the voter about any perceived errors, such as voting for one candidate when two candidates could be chosen.

The computer screens can be tipped to provide easy access for the disabled and a specially-designed audio system is available for the blind, Reed said.

"The blind can vote themselves and not rely on others to do it for them," Reed said. "This machine has real advantages for the disabled."

The primary reason for this statewide, $9.3 million conversion is security and accuracy, said Barbara Reed, Douglas County Clerk Treasurer.

"It's the result of the problems that arose during the 2000 elections," she said. "These units are stand-alone, not hooked up to anything but an outlet."

The tabulation system is also self-contained.

"All cartridges, (those containing voter's results) are calculated here, so there's no way to hack into the system," Reed said. "And I won't be sending any results over a modem."

All these advantages don't come cheap. The $9.3 million in federal funding provided through the Federal Voting Act is just part of the expense, Reed said.

Douglas County officials rented a special climate-controlled election center just off Airport Road in Minden for $25,000 a year and the machines must be powered up every month for 24 hours. Each printer must be powered up for 8 hours.

The decision to decertify the old punch card system was made at the federal level. Nevada was given a 2006 deadline to complete their conversion, but punch cards will be illegal in Nevada as of Sept. 1, Reed said.

Features of the new system can be viewed online at cltr.co.douglas.nv.us/. Once on the Web site, choose the elections category and then the Douglas County voting system.