Electronic voting comes to county

By Cindy V. Culp Waco Tribune-Herald
Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Paper ballots are pretty much a thing of the past for McLennan County elections.

About 500 electronic voting machines were delivered to the local elections office Monday, ushering in a new era of ballot casting. They will replace the so-called optical scan machines the county has been using, which had voters fill in ovals on a paper ballot.

The only people who will still use paper ballots are those who vote by mail.

?It's a real simple system, and I think everybody will be able to use it once they've tried,? McLennan County elections administrator Kathy E. Van Wolfe said of the new machines.

The new machines resemble computer terminals, but Van Wolfe said she would compare them more to household appliances. That's because they use a combination of a turning wheel and buttons, like a radio or washing machine, she said.

When people arrive to vote, they will be given a unique access code instead of a ballot. The voter will then enter that code on the machine and follow the instructions to vote. Essentially, voters will turn the wheel until they come to the candidate they want to vote for, then push a button to that candidate.

Throughout the process, voters will be able to backtrack if they change their minds about whom to vote for, Van Wolfe said. Once people are sure of their ions, the last step in the process is pushing a red button that says ?cast ballot.?

November's election will be an especially good time for voters to test-drive the new machines, Van Wolfe said, because the only thing on the ballot is a proposed amendment to the Texas Constitution that would ban same-sex marriages. Even so, extra election workers will be on hand to give instructions and help anyone who has difficulty, she said.

?They're not hard to use, but I know change is sometimes difficult for everybody,? Van Wolfe said.

Between now and Nov. 8, local residents who want to learn about the new equipment have a couple of options. One is to go to the elections office, where one of the machines is set up for people to practice. Also, within a couple of weeks, the elections office plans to have an online demonstration on its Web site.

The county bought the machines in response to the Help America Vote Act that President Bush signed in October 2002. It requires every voting precinct to have at least one voting system accessible to people with disabilities by Jan. 1, 2006.

McLennan County has 92 precincts, so it would have had to buy at least that many machines. The county decided to replace all of the machines after learning it could get $1.5 million in federal grant money to pay for the purchase, Van Wolfe said.

County Judge Jim Lewis said the proposition of getting new equipment without having to spend local money was something local leaders couldn't pass up.

?It's an excellent deal,? he said.

Van Wolfe said that although the new machines will have to be moved to and from polling places each election, their benefits outweigh that hassle. For one thing, the machines will eliminate errors that led to confusion about how someone meant to vote. With the old system people often checked, X'ed or circled the ovals instead of filling them in, she said.

Also, it will help with the frenzy of election night, Van Wolfe said. No longer will officials have to tally the paper ballots as they go through the scanners to get results.

?You're just pulling out a memory card and putting it in a computer instead,? she said.