Surveys may help pick gear for voting; Results showing preferences of which devices to use in polls will be given to commissioners.
Indystar.com. February 24, 2005. By Jason Thomas.  

Punch cards, optical scan machines, touch screens: Johnson County residents have used their fair share of voting equipment.

A batch of surveys distributed after the November general election could help officials decide which procedure to use in the 2006 primary the county's next election.

County Clerk Jill Jackson will present the survey results to County Commissioners at the board's Monday meeting.

Commissioners make the final decision.

"This is a nice year to decide, because there is no election," said Commissioner R.J. McConnell, "but May 2006 is closer than we think."

In an informal tally, the surveys distributed to poll inspectors and precinct committeemen showed that while voters favor the touch screens, poll workers favor optical scan equipment for voting and touch-screen technology for tallying.

"Our focus was to merely get information on the equipment and get a good feel of what poll workers felt about the equipment," Jackson said.

Poll workers liked optical scan machines because they require little effort during the polling process. Voters place a paper ballot inside a machine that looks like a tall copier, which tallies the ballot.

However, after the polls close, workers still must count each ballot individually. For the post-election process, poll workers preferred touch-screen machines, which keep track of votes electronically.

Johnson County voters used touch-screen technology during the 2004 primaries, but optical scan machines with paper ballots were used in the general election because Election Systems & Software the company that supplied that touch-screen machines was unable to certify its software.

Now the software for the $2.4 million touch-screen system has been certified, but a decision has not been made about whether to use them for the May 2006 primary. A decision is expected this year.

Jackson said she thinks there is "a pretty good chance" of using the touch-screen machines.

McConnell worried about losing a paper trail with the touch-screen technology.

"I guess it comes down to ease of use," he said. "The decision is clearly in favor of touch screens. There's just a feeling in the pit of my stomach that not having a paper trail is going to be a problem at some point."