NO HANGING CHADS

Like it or not Connecticut, change is underway at your favorite polling place. Those familiar mechanical lever voting machines we used for years to cast our ballots are a thing of the past in the Nutmeg State.
 
New so-called optical scan voting machines will be in place at all polling stations for this November's municipal elections. They were also used in the 23 towns that held primaries on September 11th. Some towns in a test project used the new units in the 2006 elections.

Some of us get snippy when forced to try something new, so it's no surprise that TV stations doing "man on the street" interviews about the optical scan devices have found voters expressing discomfort or even resentment about the switch over.

You can blame the state of Florida and its "hanging chad" voting fiasco in the 2000 Bush-Gore presidential contest for the change. Congress demanded and then enacted voting reforms that for several reasons doomed Connecticut's old-style mechanical lever machines.

Democratic Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz supervised a selection process that eventually decided on optical scan voting machines as a replacement technology. These units have been in many states for years including Massachusetts. She decided against the controversial ATM-style "touch screen" voting devices that have caused voting security problems despite their modern systems.

Knowing that Connecticut citizens might need reassurance about changing how we vote, the legislature ordered a detailed hand audit be conducted in 10% of all polling places whenever an election is held. Audits now underway after the September 11th primaries will check the accuracy and security of the new optical scan units.

Ironically, the new voting machines harken back to the politics of yesteryear because they involve paper ballots. Voters fill out the paper forms and slide them into a high-tech device that tallies all votes. Bysiewicz claims the process is actually safer and more reliable than the old lever units. Instead of tallying votes on a mechanical counter on the old machines, the optical scan units use computer technology to register votes. However, if something goes awry with the new machines, there is a paper trail as required by new federal laws. The machine can be opened and the paper ballots can be counted by hand, as they will be in the audits.

No manmade device is infallible and Bysiewicz admits mistakes will be made and problems will occur with the fancy new voting units. For example, if a voter follows the rules and fills in the little candidate ovals on the ballot form in one or two races, then gets lazy and just circles choices in the rest of the contests, the machine will accept the ballot form but the "circled" votes won't register. The only way they'd be picked up is if there is a state-ordered recount at that polling place.

However, Bysiewicz notes that numerous voting glitches occurred over the years with the lever machines. Many election day workers hated the lever units because they were old, difficult to repair, prone to problems and very heavy to move from place to place.

If you've ever filled out a lottery ticket or a multiple-choice exam sheet, you will quickly become familiar with the new optical scan voting ballots. You must adapt because the old lever machines are going bye-bye and are no longer legal for any elections in Connecticut.

If you want to see how the new voting machines work, the Secretary of the State's office has posted a short instructional video online. Check it out at You Tube.

Posted 9/17/07

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