Greene County forced to use paper ballots
By Josh Krysak, Uniontown Herald-Standard
04/14/2005
 WAYNESBURG - After the convenience of a touch-screen computer for the last six years, this election season, Greene County voters will have to once again pencil in the candidate of their choice.

County Elections Director Frances Pratt said Wednesday that the county will use a form of the old paper ballot for the upcoming primary election, but added that results should still be much faster than in the 1990s and 1980s when the ballots were counted by hand.

"We will be using paper ballot, but it won't be the paper ballot as we have known it," Pratt said.

The paper ballots will be used after the state de-certified the counties computer-run voting system last week, causing county officials to quickly prepare for the imminent primary election.

The ballots that will be cast May 17 will require voters to blacken out an oval beside the candidate of their choice and then the ballots will be counted and read by two scanners called Op Scans that quickly tabulate the count.

"This year, the ballots will not be counted at the polls. They will be counted at central, counted with two scanning machines made by Election Systems and Software out of Omaha, Neb.," Pratt said.

While Pratt said the results will still be much faster than old, paper balloting, she said voters should not expect the results to be available as quickly as the past few elections because officials will be scrambling to learn the new system.

"I don't know how long it will take, but the scanners can scan 8,000 ballots an hour," Pratt said.

Pratt said right now, election officials are focusing their efforts to get the ballots printed and testing the new equipment prior to the election.

"The priority is getting the masters of all the ballots to get printed," Pratt said. "The company assures us we have the time."

The state barred three counties from continuing to use the touch-screen system, UniLect Patriot Direct Recording Electronic Voting System, after examinations of election results revealed an above-average undercount in the November presidential election.

But state officials said they do not believe the outcome of any of the races in Mercer, Beaver and Greene counties would have changed had the machines functioned properly.

The existing system cost the county about $320,000 to install and state officials said the county will not be responsible for picking up the tab for the last minute changes resulting from the de-certification.

Brian McDonald, spokesman for the Department of State, said state officials will be on hand in all three counties to advise and assist.

"The counties didn't do anything wrong," McDonald emphasized. "Based on our evidence, this is just something that we needed to do to ensure the votes of state residents."

According to The Associated Press, the de-certification follows a growing number of federal and state legislators' expressing doubts about the integrity of the electronic voting machines. At least 40 million Americans used paperless voting terminals to cast ballots in November.

Experts have criticized the touch-screen machines, describing them as not much more reliable than home computers, which can malfunction and fall prey to hackers and viruses.

The 67 counties across the state use six voting methods, including two other touch-screen systems made by other manufacturers, lever machines, optical scanners, punch cards and paper ballots.

According to a Grove City College study, the undercount was 7.3 percent in Mercer County, 5.3 percent in Beaver County and 4.5 percent in Greene County.

Pratt said regardless of the system used for the election, the county will be prepared to ensure that the election will run smoothly the third week in May.

"I have no doubt that we will be ready," Pratt said. "Our supplies and our system will be ready for this election."