Voters in some counties going back in time
 By Jerry Storey
Pittsburgh TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, May 8, 2005

It's back to the future for Greene County in the May 17 primary election with a combination of hand-marked but machine-read ballots replacing a controversial electronic touch-screen system.

The state decertified the touch-screen system of UniLect Corp., of Dublin, Calif., just weeks before the primary, sending Beaver, Greene and Mercer counties scrambling to find another way to count votes.

Some voters in Beaver County had complained about the touch-screen machines. The machines subsequently failed an accuracy test, although the company disputes the findings.

Greene had used the UniLect touch-screen machines since 1998 and election director Frances Pratt said they have served the county well.

The three counties affected by the decertification chose as a substitute an optical-scan system provided by Election Systems and Software, of Omaha, Neb., that reads paper ballots.

Meghan McCormick, a spokeswoman for ESS, said the system is similar to an optical scanner that reads a standardized test.

Generations of students who have taken those tests probably remember the instruction to fill in the oval box completely.

McCormick said that is still sound advice. A few voters may circle an oval or draw a line through it, McCormick acknowledged.

"You just never know," she said.

Votes from rejected ballots may count later if county election review boards can determine which ovals the voters meant to fill in.

Special felt-tipped pens are used for the ballots rather than the No. 2 pencils familiar to test-takers.

Greene County used paper ballots that election officials tallied by hand prior to buying the touch-screen machines. Pratt remembers many election nights that stretched into the early-morning hours before the final vote count was determined.

She doesn't expect the optical-scan system to be as fast as the touch-screens in recording the primary results, but she's hopeful the tabulation will be finished at a reasonable hour.

Doreen Mandity, the election director in Beaver County, warns her counterparts in Mercer and Greene counties not to expect to get home too early election night.

Beaver used the optical-scan system prior to adopting the touch screens in 1995, and Mandity pointed out that it has the same major drawback as traditional paper ballots all ballots have to be hand-carried from individual voting precincts to the courthouse to be counted.

She said election officials also have to be careful that all ballots go into the scanner on the correct side.

ESS representatives are slated to be in the counties on primary night to ensure that things run smoothly.

In the meantime, election workers from the three counties are getting ready for paper ballots.

"It's a lot of work," Pratt said.

She said she's gone through "five proofings" of the ballot to make sure all the candidates are listed and all their names are spelled correctly.

Mandity said the problem is not so much the amount of work as it is "the little time" to do it before this primary.

She said she hoped the paper ballots are just a temporary solution.

Pratt estimates that preparation of the paper ballots set the Greene County election office back about two weeks.

"We're pretty much in gear (now)," Pratt said. "We'll be ready for the election."