State readies for touch-screen voting

Associated Press  05 November 2004

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - The state will use $5 million in federal money to buy touch-screen voting machines that will be in place for disabled voters in 2006.

To comply with the federal Help America Vote Act, the state will provide a machine for each of the state's 650 polling places and for 64 county auditor offices that count early or absentee ballots. Counties will be able to buy additional machines on their own.

It's a move to accommodate disabled voters who, until now, have needed a second person in the booth with them to assist marking a paper ballot.

"We need to provide a way to allow those folks to vote independently and privately," said Chris Nelson, the secretary of state.

Voters will be able to indicate their choices with a simple press of the finger as candidates' names and ballot-issue options scroll past on a computer screen. The votes will be tallied at the end of Election Day.

Touch-screen balloting will be a second option for voters at most polling places, because the cost of a total electronic conversion is too high. That means touch-screen will be available to those who need it, but voters can stick with the paper ballot system if they prefer.

"That will be a county-by-county decision," Nelson said. "I think most counties will run with two systems."

Voters who find lettering on paper ballots too small to read will benefit from larger words scrolling across an electronic screen, Nelson said. The touch system will help voters who have lost the manual dexterity needed to mark small circles with a pencil.

County auditors are cautiously preparing for the change.

"Computers are wonderful, and they save time, but I have a little bit of fear," Davison County Auditor Kathy Goetsch said from Mitchell. "So often, equipment goes down. Things happen. I want to be assured I can get those numbers accurately at the end."

Sue Roust, Minnehaha County auditor, said expense alone would mean that most voters in and around Sioux Falls will continue to use paper ballots.

"This county has nowhere near the money it would take to convert entirely to electronic voting."