Pocono News Section

Voting System Unveiled in Lackawanna County

Voting System Unveiled in Lackawanna County - Monday, March 31, 2008 at 5:23PM EST

Reported by: Eric Deabill
Monday, Mar 31, 2008 @05:23pm EST
SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA COUNTY - A new voting system was unveiled Monday morning in Lackawanna County. Voters will once again use paper ballots in the upcoming April 22nd primary, but officials say counting the ballots will be much easier.

A new optical scanner will greet voters when they head to the polls on primary day. After using pen and paper to fill out their ballots, voters will feed it into the optical scanner.

"I am very confident in this technology. It is being used very successfully. Many states have gone from touch-screen to optical scan technology," Director of Elections Maryann Spellman Young said.

Each one of the county's 163 voting precincts will have an optical scanner. At the end of the night, the results will be printed out on a tape. That will hopefully prevent scenes like we saw last November when it took days to calculate the election results.

"The benefit is, we're sort of managing each precinct as almost a seperate election. This produces that paper trail that some people were concerned about in the event of a close election," Young said.

For voters who decide to write-in a candidate, the new optical machines actually seperate those ballots so they can be counted at the end of the night. The new voting system is needed because the state decertified the touch-screen machines Lackawanna County used to use.

Many voters say they wished county leaders would have chosen to stay with the touch-screen method over paper ballots.

"The machines are easier. It only takes two minutes to go in there and get out," Matt Kochis of Scranton said.

"I really don't understand why they took those computer screens away. They were simple," John Stange of Scranton said.

Automated devices will also be available for anyone who has special needs and election officials say people may have to wait at the polls, because turnout is expected to be heavy and the process a little slower than normal.

"We expect a very heavy turnout. They might have to wait in line a little while," Young said.

Next week, poll workers will get trained on the new voting system and then the public will get a chance to learn about the voting process right before the April 22nd primary.