Hand counting is history in Nebraska elections
By NANCY HICKS / Lincoln Journal Star    26 October 2005

Each election night Sherman County Clerk Deb Mitteis waits patiently while 26 poll workers count almost 1,700 ballots.

In each of six precincts one person reads each ballot. Two others record the results in two separate books.

If both books match in every precinct and if there are no special election night problems, Mitteis  gets  home before midnight.

But Mitteis will likely be home earlier after the May election,  maybe even in time to catch the 10 o?clock news.

The state is purchasing optical scan vote-counting equipment for the 42 counties that now count ballots by hand, using primarily federal funds, Secretary of State John Gale said Tuesday.

Beginning with the May 2006 primary, the entire state will use one system ? voters who are able will blacken little ovals on a paper ballot and those ballots will be electronically counted by machine.

In addition, every polling place will have at least one disabled-accessible machine with a touch screen, a kind of joy stick and an audio component that reads the ballot aloud.

The new machines for the disabled create a paper trail by printing out a paper ballot that will be read by optical scan machines, just like the rest of the ballots.

This machine, the AutoMARK, is a new product that blends the touch screen with a paper trail.

It meets federal rules that every polling site in the nation must be handicapped accessible, including the ability to vote without help, said the secretary of state.

It also provides a paper trail for the many voters who don?t trust all-electronic voting,  he said.

The AutoMARK was developed and is manufactured by a small Chicago company, the AutoMARK Tabulation System.

This company has partnered with the Omaha-based  election equipment giant, Election Systems and Software, to distribute and support the equipment.

Because only one company manufactures the kind of equipment that exactly fits Nebraska?s needs, the secretary of state ordered the equipment without going through the normal competitive bidding process after receiving the blessing of the purchasing department and an advisory commission, he said.

The equipment also got the blessing of  an advisory group that included representatives of disability-related organizations.

The recently ordered equipment ?  690 large optical scanners, 172 precinct scanners and 1,366 Automark machines ? should be in place for the May 9, 2006, primary.

Money for the ambitious project comes from $18 million in federal funds that accompanied new federal requirements, with a state match of about $600,000.

The federal money allows the state to create a statewide voter registration list, buy more up-to-date equipment. It also provides one standard way to read ballots across the state, said Sen. DiAnna Schimek, chairman of the Legislature?s Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee.

Nebraska hasn?t had some of the election problems seen in other states, said Schimek, ?but we appreciate the ability to do some of this updating.?

The money is helpful. ?Small population counties would be counting ballots by hand into the future without the federal help,? Gale said.

About 15 percent of Nebraska ballots are counted by hand. But machine counts are more accurate, according to studies, and faster.

When reporters called at 6:30 a.m. the morning after the 2002 election, Red Willow County Clerk Pauletta Gerver was still at work.

One precinct had trouble balancing their count that year, she said.

Two years later, the same county, part of a pilot project, had optical scan ballots and Gerver was done counting the 8,000 ballots by 10 p.m.

?I?m a real advocate of the electronic scanners,? she said.

All counties will benefit from the federal funds. Some of the money will be used to purchase scanning equipment for the larger counties that now lease the machines, like Lancaster County, said the secretary of state.

The state is also spending about $300,000 to make sure every polling place is accessible.

The purchases will range from bigger-ticket items, like automated doors at the Cheyenne County Fairgrounds, to smaller dollar items, like 1,252 parking cones for marking off handicapped parking spaces and 300 door levers that cover round handles and allow people with arthritis to open a door.