Voting machines and polling places are about to change

BY DIANE MARKEL
SVN NEWS REPORTER
Published: Sunday, August 1, 2004

With one national convention at an end and another to begin, the act of voting is in the news.

Four years ago the final ion of president hung in the balance for weeks as ballots in Florida were examined and re-examined. At issue was the traditional punch card/butterfly ballot, and whether or not the "chad" had been punched out or not.

After the election, there was a call for reform with punch card ballots no longer seen as effective voting tools. Instead, newer electronic ways were examined so that voting would be voter friendly, more accurate and easier to count. Among the states going to new voter technology was Florida.

On July 28, 2004, the Associated Press ran a story that the touchscreen voting machines from Florida's Miami-Dade County had crashed last year. Information from the September 2002 gubernatorial primaries along with some other elections had been lost. However optiscan machines, which read ballots, were used in other counties in the state.

Punch cards also are on their way out in Illinois, but it is the optiscan machines which are coming in place, not the touchscreen voting machine.

 
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With the optiscan voting system, the voter receives a paper ballot, which becomes a permanent record. The candidate names are listed on the ballot with an oval beside each name. The voter darkens in the oval beside the candidate the voter wants elected. The ballot works much the same as those fill-in-the-dot tests many people had in school.

"The voter then puts the ballot in the machine," said Lee County Clerk and Recorder Nancy Nelson. "The machine counts the votes immediately and deposits the ballot in the machine. It's very user friendly."

The machine keeps a running tabulation of the votes. At the end of the election day, the judges bring in a memory card the size of a credit card and the votes are counted.

"The ballots themselves won't be recounted, but they will be stored," Nelson said.

The new machines are mandated to replace the punch cards. But the machines are not cheap. The federal government will reimburse most of the cost, but in order to save money and because each machine can handle the votes from multiple precincts, counties are consolidating polling places — not precincts, but polling places.

Palmyra township Supervisor Ron Cooper recently expressed his concerns about consolidating the polling places. There had been a proposal to combine all three precincts in his township and move them to Sauk Valley Community College. But he had preferred two precincts at another location, and one at the town hall, or better, all three at the town hall.

No decision about consolidating has yet been made for that township.

"The federal government mandated this," he said. "But I'm against the electronic machines. I asked what if it fails, and they said they would have a back-up. But they wouldn't have a back-up for each polling place. The old punch card we used for years was best, even if it didn't work in Florida."

Consolidating polling places has already taken place in Ogle County, said Mary Goerks, chief deputy in the clerk's office. The county had 52 polling places, and consolidated them down to the 34 that are in use now.

Before March, the county board voted for the new optiscan voting machines.

"People used them in the March election," Goerks said.

The election went just fine, she said, and people did not seem to be upset by the change.

Rebecca Huntley, Ogle County Clerk and Recorder, did a lot of meetings for election judges so they knew how to use the machines, said Ogle County Board Chairman Betty Gocken.

Gocken said she did not remember any complaints about the new system, or about consolidating the polling places.

"They were through really early that night (of the election because the votes were easier to count)," Gocken said.

Plans are to use the machines again in the fall election.

"The only problem we had was that we had always printed our own ballots. Now we can't," Gocken said.

The county already has been reimbursed for the machines by the federal government, she said.

Neither Whiteside County nor Lee County have the optiscan voting machines yet. Lee County has started to consolidate polling places in preparation for the machines. Whiteside County is just beginning the poll consolidation process.

Whiteside County Clerk Dan Heusinkveld said there were 58 precincts in the county, but there was no way the county could afford 58 machines. The goal was to bring the number of polling places down to about 34.

Some people were not happy about the possible consolidation of polling places which could mean they might have to drive farther, Heusinkveld said.

"The state has already approved the use of the machines in Illinois," he said. "We invited bids ..., with a bid on 34 machines. We may end up with more or less, but that was the target. I think there will be enough money (from the federal government) to cover the machines, but it will all be subject to county board approval."

In Lee County, there has been some consolidation of polling places. The goal is to reduce the number of polling places from 49 to 30, Nelson said. The new machines would cost about $5,625 each or $168,750 for 30, Nelson said. The federal government would pay $156,418.78.

The county board has not yet approved any money for the machines, but the consolidation of polling places is continuing.

"We want people to get used to the new polling places and sharing, so that when we go electronic next spring, we'll be up and running," Nelson said.