Carteret County to use paper ballots for October elections
August 11,2005
Jannette Pippin     New Bern Sun Journal 

BEAUFORT - Carteret County will return to hand-counted paper ballots for the upcoming fall elections.

The decision made to use paper-ballot voting was the first action of the newly organized Carteret County Board of Elections, which now has a new member and chairman.

The Board of Elections met Wednesday to swear in its three members and quickly named its newest member, Bill Henderson of Newport, its chairman. Discussions then turned to the issue of how Carteret County voters will cast their ballots in the Atlantic Beach municipal election on Oct. 11 and the remaining municipal races and school bond referendum Nov. 8.

The county's current electronic voting system has been under scrutiny since the November 2004 election, when 4,438 votes were lost due to a mishap over the storage capacity of one of the control units.

Board member Harry Rivers, who made the motion to use paper ballots, said afterward that he has concerns about continuing to use the machines. But timing is also an issue with the elections just months away, he said.

"I don't feel good about the machines, but we have to move forward to prepare ballots," he said.

Alva Gillikin, who is serving as interim elections director, said mail-outs for absentee voting in the Atlantic Beach election begins Sept. 9, and ballots need to be ready before that date.

Henderson seconded Rivers motion, and the votes from the board's two Democrats carried the decision to use paper ballots for the 2005 elections.

For Henderson, it's an action to help restore voter confidence and assure votes will be counted.

One concern since the 2004 election is that there wasn't a paper record to refer to when electronic votes were lost.

But board member Sue Verdon, the one Republican on the board, has been opposed to abandoning the voting machines.

Verdon has noted that last year's problems were due to a human programming error, and she reiterated her desire to use the machines this election. And by the next election, she said, the county should know more about the voting equipment guidelines being developed at the state and federal level.

"I would have liked to use the machines in 2005 and then, hopefully, the state will have its guidelines so we can go from there," she said.

Verdon said the last time paper ballots were used in Carteret County was in 1980.

While the electronic machines won't be used in the upcoming election, a county request to have the performance of the system tested still stands.

County Manager John Langdon said a test would allow the county to say definitely whether the machines work as they should in the case that they are declared surplus and put up for sale. Proof that the machines work would likely make it easier for the county to sell them.

"Even if they are not used again, we'd like to establish liability so we can get a higher resale value," Langdon said.

The Carteret County Board of Elections will meet next Aug. 24. At that time, it will receive applications for the elections director position, which was vacated last month by the retirement of Director Patsy Hardesty.