County approves voting machine purchase
By Grace Dudley     Sweetwater Reporter     24 June 2005

After months of research about electronic voting machines, the Nolan County Commissioners have decided to purchase AutoMARK electronic voting machines for the county.

The purchase of electronic voting machines comes as part of the Help America Vote Act enacted in 2002 by President Bush.

The legislation provided $3.9 million in federal funds to be given to states over three years to replace outdated voting machines, improve voter education and to train poll workers.

The ES&S AutoMARK is an electronic voting machine designed to give the voter privacy and to make marking ballots easier. Nolan County will purchase 13 voting machines and 10 scanners for a price of $113,670.

The county will have more than $9,000 in federal funds left over with which to buy other voting materials or computers as needed.

The AutoMARK voting machines have a total annual maintenance fee of $4,250. The touch screen machines simply marks the ballot for the voter and then prints out the ballots marked with votes.

County Clerk Pat McGowan prefers these machines because there is a paper trail.

"If for some reason a hand count of the ballots was needed, there would be a paper trail to follow, with other machines it is all electronic," she said.

Plus, people are going to want to see their marked ballot, she added.

The commissioners agreed that these voting machines would make voters feel most comfortable when voting. The machines and poll personnel should be ready for elections in Nov-ember.