Nueces County unveils new voting machines
Dave Froehlich    KRISTV     Oct 24, 2005, 04:14 PM 
 
CORPUS CHRISTI - This year's election marks the first time Nueces County is using a new federally mandated electronic voting machine. 6 News checked in with County Clerk Diana Barrera for a closer look at how these machines work.

As Nueces County residents step into the voting booth this fall, all they need to do is turn a wheel and press a button.

"You turn the wheel, highlight the race, and here are your ions of your candidates, and you press 'enter' and it has marked it in red," Barrera said. These new voting machines eliminate many past voting problems, like voting for more than one person.

"Now, let's say I made a mistake and I didn't want that person. I can no longer, because now if you press enter, it's the first one and it's marked the correct one." If at any point you're confused during the voting process a help button is there to bail you out.

"You receive additional instructions, and you can read through them. If you still have questions, you continue pressing help, a light appears on the judge's booth controller that the clerk manages, and they will go over to the actual voting booth area, and offer additional assistance." The new machines offer the 'ballot summary page' which gives voters one last chance to look over or change their choices before making them official.

"When you've finally decided these are your choices in that particular election then you cast your ballot right here and you press the button right here and you have voted...you have a blue screen with a waving flag."

Barrera said she's pleased with the way voters have responded to the machines so far.

"The people out there were very positive about it, saying that it was just very easy to use. I kind of studied it just to make sure that people had confidence in it, because the last thing that we want is for people to see this and feel intimidated and not want to get out there, but it's very simple," Barrera said.

If you'd like to learn how to use the e-slate voting machine, check out this interactive demo .