The verdict is in, and it's new touch-screen voting

The new system is easy to use and haul around, the board was told.
WARREN -- Step up and touch.
The Trumbull County Board of Elections has selected Diebold Election Systems of North Canton as its vendor for new touch-screen voting equipment.
It could possibly be in use by November; almost certainly by next year.
The board decided the five-year contract Thursday after months of debate at the state and local level over technical issues, paper costs, weight of equipment and cost for transporting it to polling places, and pollworker training. The board had faced a Tuesday deadline set by the Ohio secretary of state to make a selection.
"It was a tough decision for everybody," said Nick Melfi, board chairman.
Cost-saving
The federal government, through the state, is paying about $2 million for the county's new voting system.
"We'll be set for the next five years," said Kelly Pallante, elections director.
The touch-screen system the county selected should save on local costs for printing, records storage and demands on personnel, the board members noted.
Allan Banner handles the board's equipment and has trained people on the touch-screen system, also setting up exhibits at places like the county fair. He told board members that people find it easy to use once they get past initial hesitation about touching the screen, he said.
The touch-screen system also will make staffers' work on election night less complicated because the system is more efficient than optical scan systems, which read dots on paper ballots, he said.
'Far easier'
"It's far easier for voters to touch the screen than to fill in a little circle," he said.
Rokey Suleman II, deputy elections director, said he is confident in Diebold's product but his personal preference would have been the company's optical scan system -- because under current law the paper ballot is the ballot of record. "We should have a paper ballot to begin with," he said.
The state Legislature passed a bill about a year ago requiring a paper trail for all voting systems. The Diebold touch-screen system also provides a paper record of voting for the elections board.