Mini-voting machine under study

Luzerne County continues to look at replacements for its old equipment.

By JENNIFER LEARN-ANDES   Times-Leader   12 February 2005

The latest electronic voting machine trotted out before a ion committee Friday was so small that it fit in a briefcase.

And the briefcase itself converts into the actual voting booth, with fold-out privacy shields and screw-on legs. The entire package weighs 22 pounds.

Made by Texas-based Advanced Voting Solutions, it?s the first machine presented to the committee that would require voters to scroll electronic ?pages? as they make their ions.

Each unit costs about $3,000, not including some of the extra software costs. That?s considerably less than the first machine pitched, but Election Bureau Director Leonard Piazza noted the county would have to purchase several hundred more machines because voters would need time to scroll.

The Advanced machine is capable of showing several races at a time, but it can?t present the entire ballot in one shot like the Sequoia Voting Systems machine presented in December. That model, which sells for roughly $8,666, puts the entire paper ballot in front of voters, with buttons that light up as they press their ions.

Piazza estimates the county would need about 1,000 of the machines presented Friday, compared to 550 Sequoia models. The bottom line would be $3 million for Advanced versus $4.77 million for Sequoia.

The Advanced machine works along the lines of an ATM machine.

It?s equipped with informational messages and alerts to make sure voters are OK with their decisions, such as opting to skip voting on a particular office. A list of all ions is shown before the voter hits the final vote button. Before sealing them in, a voter can simply touch a name to go back and change it.

An alphabet keyboard pops up when voters touch the write-in category so they can spell out their ions.

Selection committee member Doris Merrill was pleased that the machine itself can easily be detached from the booth, kind of like a laptop computer running on battery, so she could better access the machine from her motorized Jazzy scooter. The 9-pound machine can be placed on the lap, held by a poll worker or put on a table, whichever is most comfortable to the voter.

Headphones are plugged into the machine for the visually impaired, with instructions to touch one of the four corners of the 15-inch computer screen to make ions.

The county?s five-person committee will examine more models in coming months and recommend its top picks to replace the county?s 1930s mechanical voting machines in 2006.