As the industry’s focus shifts from Super Tuesday to the many other primaries occurring over the next few months, ES&S would like to reflect on a company triumph from March 1. Boone County, one of six other jurisdictions in the nation, utilized the ExpressVote and DS200 voting configuration, having 100% of their in-person voters mark their selections with the ExpressVote and deposit verifiable paper records into the DS200 in-precinct scanner for tabulation. This marks one of the first uses of the ExpressVote as a truly universal voting device and not just an ADA solution. For more details about Boone County’s usage read the Harrison Daily’s article below and for information about the visionary voting configuration, our recent press release is available here.
New voting machines worked as planned; Record turnout for Republican primary
By James L. White | Posted Friday March 4, 2016 – 6:45am
Boone County Clerk Crystal Graddy said that even with what’s she’s sure was a record voter turnout for a primary election, the new voting machines lived up to the hopes officials had for them.
Boone County was one of four to try out the new machines. They actually printed a paper ballot marked in the machine, then the voter put that ballot in a tabulator machine to leave a paper trail after votes were counted.
During early voting, one of the actual voting machines went down. Graddy said a representative from Election Systems and Software, the vendor who sold the machines to the state, was on scene within about an hour to reprogram the machine.
But because the voting machines only mark ballots and don’t store any actual information, there was never a chance of losing any votes, she said. All unofficial election results were in and recorded by about 9 p.m. Tuesday, which is much earlier than in some other elections in the past. Graddy said the Secretary of State’s Office told election coordinator Beckie Benton that Boone was the first county to completely report all results to be posted on the website.
The old voting machines actually stored individual votes on them. If a polling place had multiple machines, it took a lot of time to shut those machines down. It wasn’t unusual for the first election results to reach the courthouse at 9 p.m. or later.
But, because the voting machines didn’t store votes and only the tabulators did, it took a lot less time to shut the polling places down Tuesday night. Most precincts had only one tabulator. Graddy said voters didn’t seem to actually have trouble with the machines, but some of them worried that someone else could see their ballot when they fed it into the tabulator. When it was explained it could go in the machine face down, voters seemed happier.
The biggest problem on election day was with people trying to vote at the Boone County Election Center, where early voting was held, Graddy said. She said the polling place for early voting couldn’t be a polling place according to the law.
Voter turnout for the primary as a whole was about 34 percent. Graddy said it’s usually about 20 percent for a preferential primary.
“It was definitely a record for the Republican primary,” Graddy said.
Voter turnout for the highly-contested 2008 general election was about 75 percent. Graddy predicts turnout could be 80 percent or more this fall if the political atmosphere stays as heated as it is now.
So, what’s possible in the future for voters?
Graddy said the current voting machines will allow a voter to mark their ballot on a smartphone, then take it to the voting machine. It would then be downloaded from the phone to the voting machine. She said she has seen that demonstrated on the system, but it would require legislative approval and won’t be available for the 2016 general election.
“But it has the capability,” she said.
Original article available here.