By touch or scan, a new way to vote
City and Chesterfield roll out new machines to replace levers, cards
Times-Dispatch. 12 June, 2005. BY TYLER WHITLEY,TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Residents of Richmond and Chesterfield County will vote on new machines in Tuesday's primary.

In Richmond, think touch screen and an ATM.

In Chesterfield, think fill in the ovals and SAT.

Election officials in both localities expect little or no confusion, in part because they have picked a sparsely attended primary to introduce the machines.

They expect more fallout from the dual primary voters must actually state which political party they want to vote for and cannot switch from one party to another that day.

For the first time since 1988, the two parties scheduled a primary on the same date to choose nominees for the Nov. 8 general election. Virginia law states that a resident may vote in only one primary election.

But election officials emphasize that the stated preference Tuesday is not an oath of party membership or loyalty. For instance, you can vote for a Democrat on Tuesday, then vote for a Republican on Nov. 8.

When you enter the polling place, an election official will ask whether you are voting in the Democratic or Republican primary and will give you the corresponding ballot.

The legacy of Florida
Older voting machines, such as the punch-card and mechanical-lever models, are being replaced by electronic machines. After the election debacle in Florida in the 2000 presidential race, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act and appropriated money for states to buy new machines.

Virginia has received more than $30 million. The new machines must be in place by the first federal election in 2006.

Barbara Cockrell, deputy secretary of the State Board of Elections, said most Virginia localities have either replaced machines or have them on order. Most have chosen the same kind of touch-screen machine bought by Richmond.

Those machines will replace mechanical-lever machines in Richmond, which were beginning to wear out.

James Walthall, a member of the Richmond electoral board, said the new machines were used in eight precincts on a pilot basis in last year's presidential election, and "people were delighted."

On the machines, you touch the screen to begin voting. The names of the candidates then appear. You then touch the screen on the name of the candidate you want.

If you change your mind or realize you made a mistake, you can touch the name again to undo the ion.

Step three allows you to review your choices. And if you are satisfied with your choices, you touch "next," which takes the screen to a vote mode. You record your vote by touching the "Vote" button. The votes are recorded on a tape that can be played back if there is a recount.

Optical-scan models
Chesterfield is replacing the punch-card machines of Florida infamy with optical-scan equipment. In this two-stage process, you get a ballot and record your choice by blackening the oval next to the candidate you want.

Once you have marked your ballot, you take it to a vote counter and it. If the oval is not filled out correctly, the machine will tell you.

If you change your mind or make a mistake, you must contact an election official, who will take your old ballot and give you a new one. However, once the paper is ed into the counter, you cannot change your vote.

Chesterfield has retained the old punch-card booths where voters can mark their ions using pens provided by election officials.

If there is a recount, the machine not only has a tape but has the actual ballots that can be run through a machine again.

The touch-screen machines have come under some criticism. Miami-Dade County's elections chief recently recommended ditching the three-year-old machines and replacing them with optical scanners.

In Richmond recently to speak to the League of Women Voters, Barbara Simons, an expert on computer voting from California, strongly supported the optical-scan machines over the touch-screen ones, saying the scan machines are safer against tampering and easier to use. But touch-screen supporters said her fears are misplaced.

State law prohibits a write-in vote on Tuesday.