Touch screens certified
They will be used in November's election

By Rebecca Helmes
Staff writer Palladium-Item   23 September 2004

Wayne County residents will cast their ballots on certified iVotronic voting machines in the November election.

The Indiana Election Commission announced the certification at a meeting Wednesday afternoon, a little more than a week before the Oct. 1 certification deadline.

Had the touch-screen equipment not been certified, Wayne, Henry and two other Indiana counties faced the possibility of using optical scan equipment from Election Systems & Software. ES&S supplies both voting systems.

The Indiana Election Commission allowed the four counties using ES&S equipment to use uncertified iVotronics in the May primary elections. The commission said it would not, however, allow ES&S or counties to use uncertified equipment for the upcoming election.

ES&S would have had to supply the counties with an alternative voting method that already was certified.

Although Wayne County Clerk Sue Anne Lower is not sure of all the enhancements that were made to the certified 9.0 version of the programming, she's optimistic about its voter-friendliness.

"The enhancements that they have put on it are going to be helpful to the voters," Lower said.

With the new version, voters can choose to increase the font size on the screen.

"So they will be able to read it a little bit better," Lower said.

Voters also will be able to see all of their ions on a review page before submitting their ballots. On prior versions, voters were not able to see which candidates they ed on the review page when the ion of more than one candidate was required.

"It was a long day, but it's a relief to know at least which way we're going," Lower said.

Lower had hoped the iVotronics would be certified. Most of her poll workers were trained on the iVotronics for either the county primaries in May or the Richmond municipal election last November. Working with the machines will be review for most of them, though some need a bit more instruction.