Voters to Cast Ballots on New Voting Machines in May Election
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County Clerk Cindy Luczak shows off the new ESS electronic voting scanners at the recent Social Security Forum.
Bay County will have one new ESS (Election Systems and Software) electronic scanner at each of the 75 voting precincts in the May 3 election.
Voters won't notice much difference: however, they will fill in little ovals instead of connecting arrows with a black line as in the past.
The new system not only is faster and more accurate but also has security features and a paper trail for recounts if necessary.
County Clerk Cindy Luczak demonstrated the units at the Social Security Forum that attracted about 150 visitors last Saturday in the Bay County Community Center.
As the crowd alternately cheered and groaned in the background about the projected fortunes of Social Security, Mrs. Luczak calmly ran completed trial ballots through the optical scan machine in seconds.
"They're a lot easier to use and, look, we have a paper trail," she exclaimed, lifting a panel to reveal a coil of paper like an adding machine would have.
The coded paper tape can be retrieved for easy recounts or vote checking while retaining the confidentiality of the citizen's vote, she indicated.
Bay County has 80 of the new machines, one for each of the 75 precincts plus a few backups, that will go into operation in the May 3 school election.
Not much is that different with the new system except that the units are smaller than the old clunky Optech Eagles and positively tiny compared to the huge upright mechanical voting machines in use until a decadeor so ago.
Each precinct eventually will have two machines, one especially for handicapped persons. The total cost, provided by federal grants, will be about $1 million, according to Mrs. Luczak.
City Clerk Dana Muscott is in the midst of a full month of training her office staff and precinct workers to use the new machines.
"Through some creative tuning of the grant agreement, Ms. Muscott was able to obtain 36 machines for our 30 precincts, allowing us to have extra machines on election day if needed," City Manager Robert V. Belleman told the City Commission in a recent memo.
Ballots have arrived for the May 3 election and about 1,500 absentee ballot applications have been received, the manager said, concluding: "The city clerk intends to mail the ballots as soon as she receives the County Clerk's programs for the new election machines."###
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