Brown County tries out new voting technology on Aug. 2
 

By Michael Arthur    The News Democrat    27 July 2005
   
GEORGETOWN ? In accordance with the Help America Vote Act, the Brown County Board of Elections is trying out a new voting machine during the special election Aug. 2.

The "Model 100," created by Elections Systems and Software, is already being used at thousands of polling locations throughout the country. The Model 100 Ballot Counter processes special ballots and instantly counts votes at the time they are cast.

"Basically like standardized tests," said Michael Barbian, an employee of Triad, a support company that will be assisting voting in the upcoming election.

The ballots are simple and have several features to prevent error. Voters are asked to fill in ovals denoting a choice on any particular issue or election. After the entire ballot is complete, the voter is then instructed to feed the ballot into the Model 100, which checks the ballot for errors and, if the ballot is filled out correctly, counts and stores the votes. The tally of votes is printed at the end of election time, giving ballot workers instant totals. The report also outlines errors that occurred during the entire day's voting.

Errors can include stray ink marks in the margins, over voting and under voting. If one of these errors do occur, such as conflicting votes or no votes on a particular issue, the Model 100 alerts the voter at the time of scan. The voter is then given the option to take back the ballot and receive a new ballot from poll workers if necessary.

"This will eliminate many of the common mistakes in voting," said Duane Rapp, also a Triad employee.

"We have 201 (poll workers) scheduled to be trained (on the Model 100,)" said Sue Macintosh, director of the Brown County Board of Elections. Macintosh said that one Model 100 will be used in each of Brown County's 35 precincts.

Macintosh said that Brown County voters will have a unique opportunity to try out the new system with the upcoming special election because only one item, the election for a second district representative to the House of Representatives, will be on the ballot. "We are very lucky," said Macintosh, "we can use this as a demo."

The Board of Elections will review the machines after the Aug. 2 election to decide if they want to use the machines permanently.

"The election next Tuesday (will) give Brown County election administrators and voters a chance to experience the ES&SModel 100 first hand," said ES&S representative Jill Friedman Wilson, "as a process for chosing a voting system on a permanant basis. . . It is easy to use, increases voter confidence because of the ion review process and makes the election process much more efficient for election administrators and workers."

Hard copies will be stored in case a recount is necessary.