Election board introduces potential polling machines

Voting and electronic devices appear to be on a permanent merging path in the world of elections going forward. That fact was on display in the Dubois County Election Board special meeting on vote centers Thursday night.

Dubois County Clerk Bridgette Bartley invited members of the Dubois County Council and media to come to the Center for Technology, Innovation and Manufacturing (CTIM) at the Vincennes University Jasper Campus to listen to a presentation on electronic poll machines and to discuss the viability of Vote Centers in Dubois County.

The vote center concept has taking off and more are being implemented in counties around the state after pilot programs were run in several Indiana counties in the last two years.

The idea of a vote center is that you can go to any one of several centers in the county to vote. The other benefits touted include a drop in costs to the county to hold elections. Fewer workers would be needed and the time to vote would be shortened.

The vote center concept has been and continues to be reviewed by the Dubois County Election board.

The other option the election board is examining is the addition of new electronic poll books at the vote centers, replacing the existing paper poll books.

Jeremy Burton with Election Systems & Software made a presentation of their device called the ExpressPoll-5000.

Burton says their approach is that they fit the county, not force the county to fit their solution.

The way the electronic poll books work is that a voter would enter the vote center and their drivers license or state-issued ID card would be scanned to obtain their name and address. Then the voter is matched with the proper ballot on the Microvote machine.

The electronic poll book connects to all networks so that it can be used in any setting where network connections are available.

Another benefit of the system is that it provides access to real-time statistics allowing elections to be monitored while they are in progress. Problems can be discovered and responded to almost immediately. Technical issues can be addressed during the election as well.

The devices run $1,800.00 each and Bartley says that Dubois County would need between 15 and 20 of the units. The devices are compatible with the existing Microvote machines that are used to cast ballots.

Bartley says she was told that the cost for the electronic poll books would be categorized as a capital expenditure out of county funds.

Bartley and the board said that four public hearings would be held before final decisions are made. Those four hearings would be conducted in January.

After the meeting Dubois County Council President Greg Kendall said the vote centers are a good idea. “They are if it’s going to simplify the voting process and maybe save us some money in the process,” he said. “I think from what I’ve seen so far I think the voters like it. It’ll simplify it. So far it seems like a pretty good idea.”

Kendall doesn’t believe the vote centers will save the county significant money. “Not a major amount of money, I don’t think. In the long run it’s going to save us some money, but I don’t see a major savings,” he explained. “In so many things in my experience with government everything seems to look a whole lot cheaper and in the long run when you get through with everything…the cost overall for everything will come out pretty close.”

The results of the public hearings will help determine whether the county continues to move ahead with the vote center idea.