Survey: Voters prefer screens to paper
By MICHAEL W. HOSKINS
Johnson County Daily Journal staff writer
Feb. 18, 2005

If Johnson County voters use a different ballot system for the fourth time in four trips to the polls, County Clerk Jill Jackson hopes it?s the version the county sticks with.

She also wants to get past earlier problems and focus on successful upcoming elections.

The county?s top election official supports using touchscreen voting machines, which voters used once before switching to electronically scanned paper ballots.

County commissioners make the final decision on using the $2.4 million worth of touchscreen equipment, but Jackson supports the paperless form, which she described as less hassle for voters and poll workers.

?From what I?ve heard from the public, a majority have said they liked touchscreens,? Jackson said. ?That?s who is using the equipment and who I have to listen to.?

Voters used touchscreen voting machines in the May primary but switched to paper ballots when Election Systems & Software failed to get the equipment certified in time for the November general election. For years prior to that, the county used punch-card ballots.

After the general election, Jackson sent surveys to poll workers asking them to compare touchscreen and scanner systems. The results show poll workers liked using touchscreen voting machines more than scanner ballots, in which voters blackened circles for candidates.

Poll workers and precinct committee members also reported that voters seemed to enjoy the touchscreen voting machines best, according to survey results.

People answering the surveys also reported they were comfortable that no paper trail existed other than computer printouts from the touchscreen, the survey results said.

Two of the three members of the county election board met last week and discussed the issue but did not make a recommendation to the county commissioners.

Jackson plans to tell commissioners this month that poll workers and voters enjoyed the new, modern voting equipment more than paper ballots and that she would leave the decision to them.

?Right now, we have state-of- the-art equipment,? she said. ?We don?t know if we have any other option or what the other equipment is.?

The county has been considering terminating a contract since learning in January 2004 that ES&S had not put certified software parts in the machines and misled Jackson twice about the use of authorized equipment.

Jackson wants county attorney Jeff Eggers to review the contract with ES&S, which sold the county touchscreen voting machines in 2003.

If the county decides to stick with the touchscreens, voters will be in good hands with the machines, she said. The company has gotten approval from the Indiana Election Division to use the equipment and has trained the clerk and staff on using a newer version.

The new version has the capability of zooming in on the screen, enlarging instructions for sight-impaired voters, has a more complicated password system and can deliver printouts of every ballot as a security measure, Jackson said.

While Jackson could train poll workers on either system, switching back to paper ballots would be a step in the wrong direction, she said.

?We want people to come vote,? Jackson said. ?If they?re not, because they?re intimidated or not comfortable with the equipment, then we haven?t done our job.?

County commissioners have the final say on the equipment, she said. Jackson wants the three-member board to review the surveys and comments from poll workers and voters at the Feb. 28 meeting, she said.