Coming: More than one way to vote

May 27, 2005

BY STEVE PATTERSON?Chicago Sun-Times?

Poking a hole through a punch card will soon be a thing of the past for Cook County voters.

A $23.8 million change of the county's voting system was unveiled Thursday, with County Clerk David Orr showing off machines that will electronically scan votes.

While most machines in suburban polling places will have ballots that can be marked with a pen or pencil like filling in a bubble on a standardized test there will also be at least one touch screen voting machine in each precinct.

The upgrades required and funded through the federal Help America Vote Act must be in place before the 2006 elections.

Scanning is easy, says Orr

Orr will ask the county board in June to approve a contract with California-based Sequoia Voting Systems to provide the machines.

"This optical scan system is a proven system that's easy to use, is less expensive and everyone around us is going to have it," Orr said, though acknowledging "we have a very, very demanding educational component to this, for voters, for judges, everyone."

A voter using an optical scan ballot will shade in bubbles for candidates, then feed it into a scanner, allowing the voter to take one final look before casting it.

The touch screen machines come with a backup paper trail in case a ballot is challenged.

The same dual-machine system is in place in Washington, where election director Alice P. Miller said voters have been happy to choose between electronic or paper ballots.

"If a voter doesn't like doing it with electronics, or thinks something's wrong, [that person] can still use paper," she said. "Both machines are available for every voter and it's worked out relatively smooth."

If a paper ballot is jammed, she said, "a voter can continue voting on an optical scan" via a transfer.

Chicago Board of Elections spokesman Tom Leach said the city is "probably a week or two away" from deciding which vendor will supply its new voting machines, expected to cost $20-$30 million.

Last year, Sequoia provided touch screen machines for all Nevada voters, and officials there said "the overall voter satisfaction has been tremendous."

"We had a lot of apprehension, as you will there, from some in the senior community who might be concerned because it's a computer," said Nevada Secretary of State spokesman Steve George.

"We had to do a lot of education, take the machines to them and let them do it themselves and then they said 'this is pretty easy.' "