By Bibeka Shrestha

Buena Vista, Lexington and Rockbridge County citizens are in for a surprise in the voting booth Nov. 8. New touch-screen machines will replace traditional lever machines at the polls.

A federal law, the Help America Vote Act, requires handicapped accessibility in the voting booth by 2006, said Marilyn Earlheart, general Registrar for Rockbridge County. It will be the first time that these high-tech machines are used in a general election in this area.

While the new machines had their first run in the primary elections in June, Earlheart said the first real test will be this upcoming Election Day.

She said it will be a “better test” of citizens’ reaction to the machines because more people are likely to vote in general elections than primaries.

If the primary election was any indication, citizens will find the change to be a positive one, Earlheart said. “Everyone liked the new machines,” she said. “We didn’t really have problems.”

One of the new touch-screen machines.

Carolyn Rendleman, Lexington’s general registrar, agreed. “We had an extremely favorable reaction,” she said.

The Sunrise Rotary Club recently held a presentation of Lexington's new machines. Rotary club members were allowed to practice on the machines.

“It was a very positive experience,” said Al Hockaday, who was at the Rotary meeting.

Absentee voters, who have already made the trip to the registrar to vote early for the general election, also approved of the new machines, Rendleman said.

While many voters might not have had any problems with the new machines thus far, there is at least one example of a citizen not adapting to the change.

“The instructions weren’t clear for me,” said Deborah Elder, an employee at the Lexington post office. Elder mistakenly chose the button to finish voting when she meant to choose the option to go to the next screen, she said.

Rendleman was surprised to hear about the problem. “This is the first I’ve heard of it,” she said. “The instructions are clear, and you can’t cast a vote until you get to the review screen.” Rendleman said the difficulty most likely resulted from being in hurry rather than problems with the instructions.

These changes have been in the works for two years. Local registrars attended demonstrations of various state-approved machines before they made their decisions.

The seven new voting machines in Rockbridge County cost about $25,000, and Earlheart said federal funds footed the bill.
Federal money covered all of the costs for Buena Vista's machines as well.

Lexington, however, had to chip in more than $4,300 for its $35,000 machines.

With much invested in the new machines, Rendleman is looking forward to Election Day. “I think the new machines are going to work,” she said. “They will permit us to get the results quickly.”
She said those who are apprehensive about operating them will find them easy to use.

“I haven’t gotten used to them, but I will,” Elder said. “This time, I’m going to go real slow and read everything.”
 

Produced by Washington and Lee journalism students.

Lead supervisor:      Prof. Claudette Artwick

Reporting supervisor: Prof. Doug Cumming

Editing supervisor:  Prof. Pamela Luecke

Technical supervisor:  Michael Todd