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Poll Workers Try Out New Registration Check System

Carl Orth/SUNCOAST NEWS

ELECTRONIC SIGNATURE devices for voters will appear similar to credit-card machines at stores, Pasco County Supervisor of Elections Brian Corley explains at Wednesday’s demonstration.

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By Carl  Orth | The Suncoast News

Published: January 11, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - Pen and paper will yield to microchips when Pasco County voters have their registrations confirmed at the polls during the Jan. 29 presidential preference primary.

Thick and heavy logbooks listing the names of registered voters will be displaced by the EViD electronic voter identification system.

With EViD, two workers can now accomplish the registration-verification tasks that required 12 inspectors during past elections, Pasco County Supervisor of Elections Brian Corley said Wednesday during a training session.

"These machines are unbelievable," Corley said of the EViD terminals. "Historic. The efficiency is huge."

Reactions to the EViD machines varied among poll workers who went through Wednesday's training session.

"I love it," Holiday resident Rachel Prince said.

Initially at least, Midge London-Prace, of New Port Richey, was a bit more intimidated.
If voters are used to signing their names electronically for credit card purchases at stores, they will probably be comfortable with the EViD system.

A driver's license or Florida photo identification card of a voter is swiped through the EViD terminal to read the information embedded on the plastic card's magnetic stripe.
Then the voter signs his or her name using a special pen on a touch-pad screen.

The EViD machine then prompts the poll worker to verify the voter's signature and current address.

The beauty of EViD, Corley said, is that the devices will send an alert if the voter is in the wrong precinct, and even spit out a printed receipt with directions to the correct precinct.

Electronic registration also flags anyone trying to vote a second time in the same election, Corley noted.

And voter turnout totals can be updated hourly on the Supervisor of Elections Office Web site.

The Supervisor of Elections Office purchased 350 EViD terminals, so there can be at least two of the electronic registration devices at each precinct.

Even though each terminal costs about $4,000, the Supervisor of Elections Office will save considerable money because it will have to pay fewer poll workers. The average pay is $100 a day for workers.

Also, a state grant helped defray the initial purchase price of the machines.

All EViD terminals will "talk" to a central computer every few minutes, Corley said. Thanks to multiple firewalls built into the EViD, the system should be secure and resistant to online hacking or other forms of manipulation, the supervisor said.

The next step in election upgrades will be paper ballots read by optical scanners, Corley said. He hopes to put that system in place in time for the city elections in April.

The optical scanner system will replace touch-screen voting machines. The Legislature ordered counties to drop touch-screen voting systems because of concerns over the security and reliability of that form of electronic voting.

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