43
Trumbull elections board seeks to eliminate voting bottlenecks
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The Trumbull County Board of Elections soon will ask the county commissioners for $63,672 as the county’s 15 percent share of the cost to buy 180 electronic poll books to improve voting efficiency.
The elections board Tuesday approved a staff recommendation to select the company Election Systems & Software, Omaha, Neb., as the provider of the devices at a cost of $302,990, with the state paying $257,541 of it.
Alan Shaker, deputy elections board director, said two of the small computers would be used at each polling location to allow poll workers to check the identity of a voter and call up the voter’s registration information to ensure that he or she votes in the right precinct and doesn’t vote twice. Today the process is done manually with physical poll books.
The main advantage of electronic poll books is to speed up the check-in process and eliminate the “bottleneck” at the check-in desk, Shaker said.
The devices are estimated to cut the check-in time by 70 percent, Shaker said, adding that he hopes they will be ready to use in the spring or fall elections in 2017.
The devices scan the voter’s driver’s license, which shows the poll worker and voter the voter’s registration information.
The voter uses the stylus to sign his or her name, which the poll worker verifies.
The device then produces an electronic card that the voter inserts in the voting machine to allow him or her to vote.
Shaker also outlined plans to reduce the number of polling locations by about 15 by the fall 2017 election to reduce the number of electronic poll books that would be needed.
There are 158 voting precincts in 92 locations. The elections board would like to reduce the voting locations to between 70 and 80, Shaker said.
The number of voting precincts would not change under the plan, but it would result in some voters’ having to move to a different polling place.
Shaker said Trumbull County will need new electronic voting machines by 2020, and ES&C is developing a new one that would be compatible with the electronic poll books and voter-registration software.