Louisa gets new voting machines

By Braxton Williams  Charlottesville Daily Progress staff writer
September 26, 2004

LOUISA - Some Louisa County residents, particularly those leery of computers, may be slightly uneasy about the new electronic voting machines they’ll be using to vote for president in November.

But the 44 touch-screen machines are smaller and more user-friendly than the lever-operated ones used in the last election, county officials say.

“It’s gonna be so much easier - even people who’s scared of ’em, even the people who’s scared it’s gonna bite ’em or something,” said Doris Johnson, secretary of the electoral board.

“For one thing, they’re smaller … You had to have storage places for [the old] machines. It’s just so nice to have these small little voting machines. They’re just like a piece of luggage that you pull on rollers,” Johnson said.

Just to be sure people know what they’re dealing with, election officials have been fanning out around the county to hold demonstrations of the new equipment for churches, civic groups and other organizations for the past several months.

“Folks that have been voting on the levers, a lot of them, that’s all they’ve voted on so they’re very familiar with them,” said Registrar Cris Watkins. “But there’s a population that’s never done any of that stuff and I think it’s gonna be a learning curve for them.”

Users will touch their ions on a computer screen, then press a button on the bottom corner to move on. The machines allow users to review their ions as many times as they want before officially casting their ballot.

Louisa and other localities nationwide are required by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to implement the new technology within a certain time frame. The federal voting reform law was passed after deficiencies were illuminated during the 2000 presidential election, which culminated in the U.S. Supreme Court halting a vote recount in Florida and effectively naming George W. Bush president.

The new voting machines, paid for by the federal government, allow for a printout of every vote cast in a given election in the case of a recount.