Poll workers have plenty of practice

By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Elections board officials maintained at least the appearance of being confident that their new touch-screen voting machines will work well today when Trumbull County voters use them for the first time.
On Monday, officials gave the system one more test run. Everything worked correctly -- from the encoder that prepares the voting access card, to the voting machine, to the computer that reads the memory card that comes out of the voting machine.
Elections director Kelly S. Pallante and deputy director Rokey W. Suleman II were not the least bit surprised. They have worked on the new technology nonstop for months.
For example, eight elections board workers have worked six days a week, 10 hours a day for a week and a half testing all of the voting machines.
Practice
But the elections board knows it is probably even more important that the poll workers and voters are comfortable. That is why poll workers have each had an average of four hours of practice on the machines and been given videotapes and other resources to study.
"I keep telling poll workers they'll be pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to set up," said Stephanie Penrose, an election system administrator.
This is also why more than 2,800 voters at 62 events in the past 65 days have physically touched the voting screens and practiced with them, Pallante said. The elections board also mailed brochures to all registered voters last week, explaining how to vote on them. There also have been TV and newspaper advertisements.
"We've done as much as we can to educate the public. The rest is up to the voters," Suleman said.
Of course, that still leaves thousands of voters who have not yet seen the machines and may find them confusing on election day.
Pallante said if a person has questions about how to use the machine while at the polls, they just need to ask, and two election workers -- one Democrat and one Republican -- will assist them.
This is no different from in the past, Pallante said, and is done to ensure that technical assistance is not politically biased.
If a voter wants to have a friend assist them at the polling place, this is allowed, Pallante said. But the voter's employer and an agent of their labor union are prohibited from helping.
New technology
While any new technology can be confusing, Pallante said she believes touch-screen voting has a number of advantages that will become apparent to voters. The main one is that voters can check their votes before the final step of "cast ballot." Doing this was more difficult with punch cards, Suleman noted.
The voting machine gives the voter a summary page that allows review of votes. The voter can also choose "print ballot" to see an enclosed printed copy of the choices. At this point, the voter can still make changes to the choices.
Once the voter chooses "cast ballot," they cannot go back, however, Pallante said.
Other assistance being provided on election day will be 12 election board "rovers" and additional representatives from elections machine manufacturer, Diebold. They will check in at polling places to assist poll workers.
Also available for help on the telephone will be a "huge help desk," where poll workers can get help at 10 phone numbers, Pallante said.
runyan@vindy.com