Cox
says Georgia’s computer voting will be a thousand
times better than Florida’s
Georgia
elections officials are vowing there won't be
a repeat of the Florida debacle on Nov. 5, when
Georgia becomes the first in the nation to roll
out electronic voting statewide. "I truly
do not think that you could find a greater contrast,"
said Secretary of State Cathy Cox.
"We have it covered 1,000 times better (than
Florida)."
Cox
and her staff have been working to launch electronic
voting in Georgia since problems with punch-card
machines in Florida's 2000 elections touched off
five weeks of legal wrangling to decide who won
that state's electoral votes and, thus, the presidency.
The
Georgia General Assembly created a commission
early last year to examine the qualifications
of vendors vying to sell touch-screen machines
to Georgia. The panel also picked cities to experiment
with the various competitors' machines in the
2001 municipal elections.
This
year, the Legislature followed up by approving
$54 million in bonds to get the system up and
running this fall, instead of 2004 as originally
expected. Then last spring, the state awarded
the contract to Ohio-based Diebold Election Systems,
which also manufactures automatic-teller machines.
New
Technology Praised
So
far, electronic voting has received glowing reviews
in limited use. Last year's demonstration projects
were widely considered a success in all 13 cities
that participated. And when elections officials
in Hall and Marion counties received permission
to use the new machines during the recent primaries
and runoffs rather than replace their worn-out
equipment, no major problems were reported.
"My voters were happy, and my poll workers
were happy," said Marion County Probate Judge
Bob Welch, who oversees elections
in the rural area east of Columbus. "That
makes me happy."
While
the two brands of machines used in Florida received
some criticism, Cox said the biggest difference
between the Sunshine State's experience during
the primary and what she expects for Georgia is
training. When Florida lawmakers decided to scrap
punch-card balloting, the main source of controversy
two years ago, they allowed counties to choose
whether to convert to electronic voting or use
so-called "optical-scan" systems. Such
systems require voters to fill in ovals beside
the names of the candidates they wish to support.
Counties
also were left on their own to provide the necessary
training, Cox said. "You can't just set this
equipment out and expect everybody to know how
to use it," she said. "You have to prepare
your poll workers and educate your voters. ...
Their piecemeal approach was a virtual invitation
to disaster."
Most
of the Florida counties that converted to electronic
voting conducted smooth primary elections. But
in South Florida, Dade and Broward counties were
plagued by a host of technical problems and such
basic training failures as poll workers who didn't
know how to turn on the machines.
"I
actually thought (Georgia's) training plans were
a bit of an overkill," said Lynn
Bailey, executive director of the Richmond
County Board of Elections. "But after hearing
some of the problems (Florida) had, I feel justified
with the extent of the training we're doing."
Manufacturer
to Train Workers
Diebold
is playing a major role in Georgia's preparations.
Cox said the company is training two poll workers
for every precinct in the state -- more than 3,000
in all. Those workers, in turn, will train the
other volunteers who will staff their precincts,
with the aide of a video and manual.
Then
on Election Day, Cox said, Diebold will have at
least two of its employees in every county to
answer questions during the voting, respond to
trouble spots and be on hand when the votes are
counted.
As
for training voters, that's where Tammy
Brown -- a Barrow County probate judge
-- and hundreds of her colleagues across the state
come in. They've been crisscrossing their counties
for weeks, appearing at schools, office cafeterias
and before church and civic groups. "I've
been to a different place every night and every
day for lunch this week," Brown said. "We
had just 10 for an event last night, but earlier
this week, we had 200."
On
Election Day, as was the case during the primaries,
a demonstration machine will be set up at each
precinct, and extra poll workers will be on duty
to help voters.
Seniors
Adapt to Machines
Critics of electronic voting consider seniors,
many of whom have never been exposed to computers,
as the most likely group to have trouble using
the new machines. But don't tell that to Florence
Purcell of Bethlehem, one of the elderly
voters who turned up at the church for Brown's
presentation. "It's so clear, what to punch,
what to do," she said after having a go at
the machine brought by the judge. "If you
can read, why couldn't you do this?"
During
the legislative debate over electronic voting,
some Republican lawmakers pushed for converting
all 159 Georgia counties to optical-scan systems,
which already are being used in many parts of
the state. They're less expensive than touch screens
and are simple to use. "It's like filling
out a lottery card," said Charlie
Bailey of Marietta, Cox's Republican
challenger on this year's ballot. "Everybody
knows how to do that."
But
Cox pointed to a statewide survey conducted by
her office shortly after the 2000 elections, which
found that counties using optical-scan machines
had error rates no lower than punch-card systems.
She also argued that optical-scan ballots are
so expensive to print that, after 12 years of
using touch-screen machines, the state will recover
the extra costs.
Finances
aside, some supporters of electronic voting say
Georgia must embrace the new technology because
it's the future. "This is something we're
going to have to do," said Martha
Whiting, of Winder, another of the senior
voters on hand for Brown's presentation. "If
we don't go forward, we're going to go backward."
--
Condensed from Morris News Service (Dave Williams)
