Clerk's office to test new voting system

Ballots like the sample above will be used for the first time in Vernon County in June. A new machine surveys and tabulates votes from the ballots, which are marked with a special pen provided.

By Steve Moyer

Nevada Daily Mail

Voters in the special water district election June 7 are going to be trying out a new voting system in one of the precincts. Vernon County Clerk Tammi Beach says the company offered the use of the machine for a free trial.

"I have to buy supplies for the election, but I would have to do that in any case," Beach said. "I haven't made a decision about it but this election will give us a chance to see how the voters take to it."

The new ballots are not that much different than current ones, the main difference is that you draw a line that completes an arrow instead of filling in a circle on the ballot.

The big difference comes when the voter is ready to put their ballot into the ballot box. Instead of putting their ballots into a simple metal container the voter feeds their ballot into an electronic scanner that tabulates the results for that precinct.

The scanner can tell if the ballot has a problem and will return it to the voter for correction, if needed.

Beach said that changes are coming to Vernon County because of the "Help America Vote Act of 2002," or HAVA, and those changes need to be in place by 2006. Not all of the changes have to do with ballots.

"We had someone review all of our precincts and only one meets all the requirements for handicapped access, and that's the armory," Beach said. "I don't know what we're going to do in places like Harwood where they just don't have the money to make the changes."

Any system adopted has to notify the voter if they have over-voted and give them an opportunity to change or correct the ballot before it is cast and counted. The system has to protect the privacy of the voter and the secrecy of the ballot.

Any system chosen must provide a paper record which must be available as the official record for a recount.

The system must be accessible for the disabled in the same manner that provides the same opportunity for access and participation as for other voters with the same safeguards for privacy and independence.