New technology coming for voting machines - equipment demonstrated at Wapello County Courthouse 
 
By:SCOTT NILES, Ottumwa Courier staff writer  02/18/2005 
 
OTTUMWA - New technology will change the way people vote in upcoming elections, but the adjustments are minor.
The Help America Vote Act has changed the requirements for elections around the country. The new regulations indicates that every county must have machines that are compliant with two requisites.
First each voting machine must give the individual the ability to change their vote if they made a mistake. Second, every precinct must have at least one machine that allow a handicapped person to vote without assistance.
Dan Erker, regional sales manager for Election Systems and Software offered a demonstration of the new equipment Thursday to the Wapello County Auditor Phyllis Dean.
One of the machines that will be required by HAVA is a counter that will collect the data from each precinct and store it onto a disk that will be taken back to the courthouse and implemented into the computer system there.
Dean said she likes the counter, because it requires very little change.
"The voters won't know much difference in the process because they are still going to be using the paper ballots," she said.
Erker explained exactly how the counter works.
"After the ballots are filled out, they are put through this machine which tallies up the results and points out any mistakes," he said.
The machine is designed to catch any over voting or blank ballots that are submitted.
"[The machine] will tell the poll worker where the mistake is and they can then have the person recast their vote and resubmit their ballot," he said.
Deputy Auditor Kelly Spurgeon likes the security of the new machine.
"Right now it is not as easy to catch [over voting] mistakes when it is ran through a central counter," she said. "This will make it a lot easier for us."
Another pro to the counter machines is its ability to store the data as it is received so there is less work at the end of election night, Erker said.
Spurgeon also said this as a huge factor in the election process.
"The way we do it now we cannot even start counting the ballots until the polls are closed ... the new machines will allow the ballots to be counted all day long," she said.
The machine's data is kept on a cassette-like disk that fits into the face of the device.
Once the poll site is closed for the day the machine will automatically print out a copy of the results. The disk is then taken to a central location (the courthouse) where a transfer device will take the data stored on it and put it right onto a computer spreadsheet so that the election committee has a hard copy of the results.
The disks are also reusable, thus the county does not have to buy new ones every year.
Erker also introduced a device that fulfills the second half of the HAVA requirements. The Auto Mark machine is a apparatus that is designed for people with physical disabilities, including those who have difficulty seeing.
"After the ballot is ed into the machine, an audio system reads the ballot off to the individual so they can cast their vote," he said.
This machine also has the ability to zoom in closer on the ballot for people who have trouble reading small print. It will also read back the individual's marks to them to confirm their vote. After the individual has listened to each part of the ballot and voted accordingly the AutoMark machine prints out a filled-in ballot, which is then placed in the counter.
Erker said those with disabilities like this new voting equipment.
"They are using the same ballots as everyone else so there is not discrimination in the voting process," he said.
However, a suggestion was made by one of the county supervisors to hold off on the purchase of the handicapped machines until later and just purchase the counters for now. Dean also supported this idea.
"Both machines do not have to be instated until Jan. 1, 2006," she said.
However, that still means that both systems will have to be purchased this year in order to be implemented by the Jan. 1, 2006 deadline.
"It will give the poll workers an opportunity to get used to one thing at a time," Dean said.
The total cost of both machines will be $10,000 per precinct.
As it stands, Wapello County has 24 precincts. Dean said she plans on combining some of them.
"Once it is done, there should be about 21 precincts," she said.
This would bring the total cost of both machines, programming, software, four additional counters and some additional costs to roughly $240,000 according to Erker.
Scott Niles can be reached at (641) 683-5360 or via e-mail at sjniles@mchsi.com.