Upgrade could speed up voting

Electronic systems that check registration will be tested in Gordon and 13 other counties this fall.

Rome News-Tribune  10/16/05

Voters at the polls should get their ballots much more quickly with the latest upgrade in Georgia?s election technology.

ExpressPoll units ? electronic versions of the thick paper poll books ? are expected to be in every precinct by July 2006. Floyd County Election Supervisor Evon Billups said the encoders will automatically check registration and program each voter?s ballot card.

?It will be faster than programming them by hand, and there will be less chance of error,? Billups said. ?Right now, a pollworker in a split precinct has to make sure they?re using the right ballot. With this, everything gets scanned right onto the card.?

Gordon is one of 14 counties chosen to test the system during Nov. 8 municipal races.

Voters in Calhoun and Fairmount will be checked in via ExpressPoll units. The system will not be used in the countywide special purpose, local option sales tax election.

Shea Hicks, Gordon County Board of Elections and Voter Registration chairwoman, said she looks forward to the trial run.

?It?s very user-friendly for the pollworkers and will allow them to be more voter-friendly,? she said in announcing the county?s ion for the pilot program in September. ?It will also cut down on the phone calls to our office on Election Day trying to find what precinct a particular voter is supposed to be in.?