Voting Equipment on the News

February 22nd, 2006, 4:35 pm Josh Houghtelin Vote

I overheard a co-worker in the office talking about some election based news on TV so I searched it up. I got the article from KMOTV.

I think this is funny becuase the first sentance says they were voting absentee on the touch screen but voting absentee on the touch screen here in Missouri is illegal. Charlotte brought the article to a boss and found out that St. Louis got written consent from the Secretary of State to allow absentee voting on touch screens which means that it won’t be a couple months before everyone else has that ability. Crazy shit.

I also found this article interesting becuase the fifth paragraph says Taney County may have been the first to use the touchscreen in a real election. I was the individual supporting that election. The press hit Taney while I was down there but I usualy avoid the press. Note: I believe Diebold handles St. Louis directly although we represent Diebold in this area of the United State.

St. Louis among state’s first to use touch-screen voting machines

10:34 PM CST on Tuesday, February 21, 2006

By CHERYL WITTENAUER / Associated Press

ST. LOUIS — St. Louis voters cast absentee ballots Tuesday with new touch-screen voting machines, putting the city among the first in the state to meet a federal requirement for accessibility to the disabled.

“It was very easy, simple and quick to do,” 4th Ward resident Robert Porter said as he left the Board of Election Commissioners’ office in St. Louis. The 64-year-old was among the first to cast his ballot using the new technology.

The federal Help America Vote Act in 2002 required, among other things, that at least one machine per polling place be accessible to the disabled.

Some clerks and election authorities are using touch-screen machines to fulfill that requirement. St. Louis election officials said they consulted with disability advocacy groups.

Taney County may have been the first to use them in a February election, said Mike Seitz, spokesman for the Missouri secretary of state’s office.

St. Louis will no longer use the old punch-card ballots, but move to touch-screen machines as well as machines that use an optical scanner to register a vote penciled in on a paper ballot.

Both have a paper trail in the event a vote has to be recounted.

The absentee votes cast Tuesday were for the April 4 municipal election.

The touch-screen and optically scanned voting machines will be used in that and subsequent elections.

Officials said the historically low turnout during the April election will make it a perfect testing ground to work out bugs before the machines go into wider use.

Eventually, all machines will be the touch-screen variety, Board of Elections chairman Edward Martin Jr. said.

He said older voters seemed to gravitate to the touch-screen machines and have felt comfortable with them.

The city spent $2.1 million in federal money to purchase both types of machines and conduct voter education outreach.

He said by 2009-2010, the city would be using touch-screen machines exclusively. It will have to buy additional machines at its own cost.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

APTV 02-21-06 1905CST