Warren Co. freeholders check out yet another new voting machine
Thursday, September 29, 2005
By SARA LEITCH
The Express-Times

WHITE TWP. Warren County freeholders on Wednesday examined an electronic voting machine very different from the model the county board of elections recommended as its choice.

The machine, made by Albany, N.Y.-based Liberty Election Systems, doesn't use computer software to record votes. Instead, as company president Robert Witko explained, it works more like an electronic calculator.

"This machine is not PC driven," Witko said. "It's not connected to the Internet, there's no smart card." 
 
Voters who use the machine find a paper ballot printed with races and candidates' names, as they would on a lever voting machine. Instead of moving little arrows, they push squares to candidates, lighting up blue lights beneath the ballot. A ballot module recorded beforehand and ed in the back of the machine records their ions and is removed when polls close so votes can be counted.

The machine is used overseas, Witko said, most recently in Germany. They are manufactured in the Netherlands and assembled in Jamestown, N.Y. Each unit weighs 55 pounds and can be folded up like a suitcase for storage and transportation.

Federal law requires the county to have new machines in place for the 2006 election. Freeholders have already voted to allocate $1.725 million to buy and support electronic voting machines. The state will reimburse up to 75 percent of the cost of the new machines.

County election administrator Mary Meyers and county Clerk Terry Lee attended Wednesday's demonstration. Both said they preferred the machines made by Princeton-based Avante, which produces touch-screen voting machines.

"Avante is the system we believe is the best one out there," Meyers said.

While she liked the smaller size of the Liberty machine, Meyers said its small screen, which vision-impaired voters could use to view candidates' names in larger type, was not as user-friendly as the larger Avante screens.

Freeholder Director Richard Gardner said he invited Liberty to demonstrate their machine after the company sent him a promotional brochure.

"It's significantly different from the other company that demonstrated two months ago," Gardner said. "I'm trying to do my due diligence for what will be implemented for the 2006 voting year and thereafter."