Electronic voting commences

The era of the hanging chad has officially ended and the dawn of a new day in voting… The era of the hanging chad has officially ended and the dawn of a new day in voting technology has officially arrived.

In Allegheny County precincts yesterday, 4,600 touch-screen polling machines took the place of paper-ballot voting during the election.

Since the primary race of 2006, all 50 states had to upgrade their voting machines, as mandated by Congress’ passing of the Help America Vote Act of 2002.

“This is better. One hundred percent better,” Joseph Richardson, judge of elections for the fourth ward, eighth precinct, said about the new machines.

According to Richardson, the computer technology will be much more accurate in counting votes than in previous years. In the days of paper ballots, vote counting was subject to human error.

The computerized voting booths also pose less of a problem to long lines of voters at the precincts. The quick and immediate vote confirmations cut down on the time it takes for voters to cast their ballots.

It’s the boxes filled with hard copies of voter registration and the necessity of checking registrants’ identifications that lead to waits at the polling places, Richardson said.

However, the computerized voting methods lead to some problems when voters are unfamiliar with the technology.

“About 80 percent [of voters] don’t know how to use the machine, so we explain it to them,” Richardson said. “They could have found it out online.”

More than 100 demonstrations on how to use the new touch-screen machines were frequently held in places such as senior centers, libraries, malls, hotels and even the Allegheny County courthouse in order to help voters prepare for the election during the past few weeks.

Simple and special technologies, like “sip and puff” machines for voters with restricted arm and hand movement and audio ballots for the hearing impaired, supplement the voting machines for voters with disabilities.

Voters often have to be helped during their first time with electronic ballots, but overall the results have been good.

“But, they catch on very quick, and they go for it,” Richardson said.

Graduate student Nina Clements thought that the process was easier this year, even though the mechanics of vote-counting seem a little shady.

“It seemed like it was a lot easier to read the options on the touch screens,” Clements said. She said she was wary of how her vote will be tabulated in the new system.