Columbiana aims to go live

By D.A. WILKINSON

VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU

LISBON — Columbiana County officials say it’s a “definite maybe” that people will be able to get election results online for the first time tonight.

Todd A. Mumpire, who oversees the county’s computer system, said Monday he had passed the needed information to the board of elections.

Thomas L. Edgell, the deputy director of the county elections board, said that the board’s computer company was working to install the program.

The program will allow the vote tallies in the board’s counting system to be moved to the results portion of a Web page. Online visitors should go to www.columbianacounty.org, click on the board of elections site, and go to “election results.”

People will need to download Adobe Reader in order to view the votes. That can be done at “election results.”

Mumpire said that using Adobe would prevent “any problem with human error” in retyping the totals onto the Web site.

The board will also be distributing paper copies of election results throughout the night as usual, according to Edgell.

The board traditionally tallies the first 10 precincts that arrive, and then releases more results in stages before the final count.

The board earlier this year said it wanted to have online results available either this fall or by the primary race in 2008.

Elections workers on Monday were also distributing elections materials to poll workers.

Edgell said that the actual voting booths — which fold up into a briefcase — can be put up before the election, if possible.

The top official in each precinct has the book of registered voters, the book with copies of each voter’s signature, the poll kits with the instructions, and the scanner that will count the paper ballots.

Poll workers are told to store those materials in their homes, rather than in their vehicle, on the night before elections. Edgell, a former police officer, said that would reduce problems if a poll worker’s car were stolen overnight.

wilkinson@vindy.com