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Poll Workers Train On Optical Scanners
Carl Orth/SUNCOAST NEWS
Pasco poll workers saw a sample paper ballot today, Wednesday, for the new optical scanner voting machines.
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Published: June 11, 2008
NEW PORT RICHEY -- Several hundred county poll workers got a sneak peek today, Wednesday, at the optical scanner voting machines Pasco voters will use during the Aug. 26 primary.
It will be the first countywide rollout of the new system, Supervisor of Elections Brian Corley explained at the training session.
The demonstration was held at the Pasco Schools Center for the Arts, on the River Ridge Middle-High School campus.
The DS200 scanning equipment from Omaha, Neb.-based Election Systems & Software will replace the county's former touch-screen voting systems. The Legislature ordered touch-screen systems scrapped in counties in which they were in use.
Opponents of touch-screen voting systems said they were vulnerable to tampering and did not produce a paper trail of votes that could help rule out voter error or fraud.
With the new system, voters will go into privacy booths to fill out a paper ballot with black marks penciled in circles next to the names of their chosen candidates. The sample ballots today were on legal-size sheets of paper.
Once done voting, voters will place the paper ballot into a "secrecy sleeve."
The voters then feed the paper ballots into the feeder tray of the scanner device in a waist-high bin. The scanner then reads the marks on the ballot to tally votes. The device will beep to alert voters to any problems so they have a chance to correct it.
Once accepted, the ballot then goes down a chute into a secure bin underneath the scanner.
The high-resolution scanners can recognize most marks, according to a fact sheet from the Supervisor's of Elections Office.
A large color LCD touch screen can flash messages to voters or instructions to poll workers.
Ballot design can be flexible since the scanners can read both sides of the ballot.
Carl Orth can be reached at 727-815-1068 or corth@suncoastnews.com.
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