Touch-Screen Voting Devices a Hit in City

By Andrew Martel
The Winchester Star

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While Fairfax County’s experiment in touch-screen voting on Election Day has brought on threats of lawsuits and court-ordered probes, Winchester election officials are much happier with their experience.

The local Electoral Board will meet Monday to discuss whether the city should purchase the machines, valued at $3,300, from the vendor Election Systems & Software, and permanently replace its lever voting machines.

But Winchester Voter Registrar Joyce S. Braithwaite is already calling the test run a success.

The U.S. Congress has mandated lever and punch-card voting methods must be abandoned by 2006. So ES&S loaned Winchester 28 machines to introduce to voters and use Tuesday.

The response, Braithwaite said, was almost universally positive.

“There were one or two people who said they had a problem, but I think they would’ve complained no matter what the situation,” Braithwaite said.

“My mother is 83 years old and, to my knowledge, has never seen a computer except when she goes to the doctor, and she did not have a problem.”

If Winchester does go ahead and purchase the machines, Braithwaite said, the order would be for approximately 35.

Fairfax County, which debuted 1,000 touch-screen laptops, manufactured by Advanced Voting Solutions, was forced to make midday repairs Tuesday on many machines. The totals came in slowly, and some candidates are challenging the results.

But with the order from Congress, Frederick County and other localities are not deterred and are considering getting touch-screen machines of their own.

Frederick County Registrar Michael J. Janow said his office and ES&S are discussing using the touch-screen machines for the February presidential primary. However, the county may use various machines from different manufacturers in different precincts.

Touch screens are not the only option available to localities forced to ditch their lever or punch card systems. Optical scan ballots, which are filled similar to standardized tests, are also an option, Janow said.

But another federal law mandates that at least one electronic voting machine that is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act be available in localities by the November 2004 elections.

There are no plans on the horizon to bring touch-screen machines to Clarke County, said Registrar Patricia Kackley.

“We’re still waiting to see what develops,” she said.