Counties urge residents to test touch-screen voting

Coming elections will use system

By Emma Ritch   Myrtle Beach Sun   06 August 2005

Horry and Georgetown county residents will be able to test-drive new touch-screen voting machines in several locations along the Grand Strand before this fall's city elections.

The machines, which arrived early this year, will be in use at every S.C. voting location by June.

Elections will be held in several cities this year, including Aynor, Loris, North Myrtle Beach, Georgetown and Myrtle Beach. The city of Georgetown will hold Democratic primaries Tuesday.

Local election boards are making the machines available months in advance of the general election to speed up voting and eliminate confusion.

"They're very simple, but it's new technology, which is sometimes scary for people," Horry County spokeswoman Lisa Bourcier said. "So we wanted to make sure that people got a chance to play around with them."

The sample voting machines are available in a few locations during the next couple of months, including the Horry County Election Commission and Chapin Memorial Library, at 14th Avenue North and Kings Highway.

"City elections are coming up, and we're trying to target those areas first," Bourcier said.

The machines also are available for demonstrations to churches, organizations and workplaces, said Deborah Cox, administrative assistant at the Horry County Election Commission.

People registering to vote at the election commission office also can receive demonstrations, she said.

The Georgetown County Registration and Elections Board also has offered to give demonstrations to civic, church or other groups.

The new system is similar to the one in use in Georgetown County during last year's elections, but board members said they hope to familiarize more people with the machines before next year's elections.

Garry Baum, public information director at the S.C. Election Commission, said the state plans to use these voting machines indefinitely because of the benefits, including security, accuracy, ease of use, faster voting and accessibility for disabled voters.

"All of the voting systems in use prior to this were voting systems that worked," he said. "But there were a variety of voting systems throughout the state."

Baum said 15 counties used the machines in the November 2004 general election but others used electronic or punch-ticket machines.

Cathy Wiggins, director of Chapin Memorial Library, said these voting machines are the first to be displayed in the city's library and so far have had few visitors.

"Not many people have asked about it, but we haven't had that much publicity," she said.

"I don't know how they can get any easier than this."