New electronic system gets off to good start

The name of each candidate a voter has picked is listed -- except in the gubernatorial contest.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- One glitch and an initial turnout heavier than expected marked today's debut of Mahoning County's electronic touch-screen system.
Despite the glitch, all votes are being counted, said Thomas McCabe, deputy elections board director.
The problem that turned up this morning involves the review screen. The screen comes up once all selections are made but before all the voter's choices are registered.
The name of each candidate a voter has picked is listed -- except in the gubernatorial contest. The screen shows that a vote for governor was cast, but not for which candidate.
The company that programmed the machines for the elections board failed to detect that missing item, McCabe said.
A voter can go back and double-check whom he or she picked for governor just to be sure before finishing the voting process, he said.
There were plenty of voters through late morning.
Precincts around the area were busier than expected, McCabe said. A good gauge is the voting location at the elections board office on Market Street in the county's South Side Annex, he said. Those booths were busy all morning.
Big races, issues
Contests for Congress, the governor and tax issues all seem to be attracting voters, he added.
Early, there were some lines and tentative voters but no serious problems. Lines formed and backed up a bit at some precincts as voters arrived early and tried their hand at the new $2.9 million system.
Poll workers became experts after working with the machines for a few hours, McCabe said.
Poll workers at first had a few questions about the 850 new voting machines, most of which had answers that could be found in their instruction packets. The usual problems also cropped up to start the day, such as poll workers' being late and buildings' not being open on time.
Elections officials hoped to avoid problems today with the four hours of training given to each poll worker.
Voting procedure
The process for voters is fairly simple.
Ballot cartridges are put into a voting machine before each person casts a ballot. Then, voters can follow the instructions on the computer screen.
Voters cast ballots by pressing down with a finger next to a candidate's name and then touching the lower right-hand corner and moving to the next page. Touching the lower left-hand corner of the screen returns the voter to previous pages.
One computer screen may have three or four races on it.
The review screen then comes up showing all the selections. Then the large red "Vote" button at the top of the voting machine lights up.
After that button is pushed, voting is finished.
rgsmith@vindy.com