Consultant to educate voters

NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Lawrence County commissioners have hired a consultant to help educate voters on the new touch-screen voting machines.
Ann-Margaret Lambo will be paid $25 an hour for work done through the May 16 election. She will be paid from the nearly $1 million federal grant the county is receiving for the new system.
Commissioner Steve Craig said Lambo will work with voting Director Marlene Gabriel to put together promotional material and schedule speaking engagements for the commissioners to demonstrate the new machines.
Commissioner Dan Vogler has asked voters who are not working on Election Day to vote in the late morning or midafternoon. He expects lines to be long because voters will be learning how to use the touch-screen machines.
In February, commissioners bought iVotronic machines from Election Systems & amp; Software Inc. of Omaha, Neb. The county previously has used paper ballots tabulated by an optical-scan machine.
Election workers have been training on the new machines for the last few weeks, and commissioners have put a simulation of how the machines work on the county Web site, www.co.lawrence.pa.us/.