Two Herkimer County towns will take part in a pilot program this Election Day, as voters in the towns of Danube and Schuyler will cast their ballots using the electronic ImageCast optical scan voting machine.
“The pilot program calls for counties to use the new voting machines in the September primary election and November general election,” said Herkimer County Republican Election Commissioner Marty Smith. “The thought behind the program is for the state and counties to gain experience using the new machines before they are widely used in 2010. We have been talking about making the change from lever voting machines to electronic ballot machines for five years, and by next year the electronic machines will be exclusively used for voting.”
Smith said the ImageCast machine was used for the primary election in Danube and that no problems were reported.
“The machine worked perfectly,” she said. “We chose Danube for the program because it was a small primary in terms of possible voter numbers, and now we are interested to see how it will work during the general election when there are more potential voters.”
When voters head to the polls Tuesday they will be asked to sign their name in the book at their district table. From there, they will be handed a paper ballot and instructed to proceed to one of the voting booths were instructions on how to properly fill out the ballot will be posted. Then voters will color in the empty box next to the candidate’s name they are voting for using a special marker that will not bleed through the paper.
Smith said it is important that the marker does not bleed through as the back of the ballot is where voters will be asked to vote on propositions.
“There will be two statewide propositions this year for residents to vote on, and for residents of the town of Schuyler, there is a local proposition asking residents to decide if term lengths of elected officials should be extended.”
After residents cast their votes, they will feed their ballot into the ImageCast machine as if they were using a fax machine. Voters are asked to stand near the machine as it scans their vote and to wait until they hear it drop into the secure collection bin before walking away.
“It is really simple to use,” said Smith. “And for our disabled voters, it is much easier than the lever machines.”
While all voters in the towns of Danube and Schuyler will use the electronic machines on Tuesday, Democratic Election Commissioner Shelly Pazzanese said they will be available at all polling locations for disabled voters.
“Everyone will use the electronic machines next year, so the pilot program gives us an opportunity to test them out this year,” said Pazzanese, adding that due to lack of available parts the lever machines are almost obsolete. “It is getting more and more difficult to find parts to repair the lever machines if they break down. These new machines are supposed to be easier to set up and maintain.”
Deputies from the Herkimer County Sheriff’s Office will collect the paper ballots and return them to the Herkimer County Board of Elections Tuesday night.
Danube, N.Y. —
