This Time, Fairfax's Touch-Screen Machines Meet Challenge
By David Cho
Washington Post Staff Writer

Fairfax County's new touch-screen voting machines behaved well throughout the day for yesterday's Democratic presidential primary, and most precincts succeeded in quickly transmitting vote tallies electronically once the polls closed last night.

By 8:15 p.m., 167 of 223 precincts had reported voting totals, nearly all of them electronically, officials said.

"I'm delighted. . . . In the old days, you would just be beginning to get results by 8, 8:15," said a relieved Margaret K. Luca, secretary of the county electoral board.

Electoral board officials had been criticized after November's general election, when machines malfunctioned and vote tallies weren't known until 21 hours after the polls closed because of a software problem. The outcome of some county school board races was in doubt until the next day.

All precincts that had the capability of filing electronically had done so by 9:30. Phone lines at nearly 70 precincts are not yet equipped to transmit computerized data.

Yesterday afternoon, Luca and other elections officials said they were encouraged that November's problems appeared to be solved after more than two months of testing, fixes made by the manufacturer and an extra cadre of technicians on duty.

"Everything has been really terrific," she said, adding that technicians were able to quickly fix virtually every problem that arose.

Just two voting machines of more than nearly 900 proved to be so balky that they could not be returned to service a far better average than November, when malfunctions created long lines at some polls.

Bob Ambrogi of Fairfax echoed the sentiments of several voters outside the Woodson High School precinct, calling the voting process "very easy."

"I think the [voting machines] are the latest technology, and that's what we need. That hanging chad is gone from history forever, I hope," added Ambrogi, referring to the confusion surrounding punch-card ballots in the 2000 presidential election.

In November, at least 154 machines crashed or had power or printing problems; 10 others broke down altogether, county officials have said. Fairfax paid $3.5 million for the new system.

Over the following two months, county elections officials conducted two mock elections to test the machines and asked the designer, Advanced Voting Solutions of Frisco, Tex., to fix a number of hardware and software glitches. Yesterday, a room full of technicians were on call throughout the primary.

In Alexandria, new electronic voting machines debuted to mostly good reviews, although some voters said that the devices were more confusing than the paper ballots used in past elections, according to registrar Tom Parkins. He added that he had expected some negative feedback.

"Any time you make a change, there are going to be some people who are unhappy," he said.

Whether voters are happy with the new system is moot, elections officials frequently point out. States are required by the federal Help America Vote Act to replace all paper, punch-card and lever machines by 2006. The change was sparked by the Florida recount in the 2000 presidential election.

The city paid $750,000 for 225 machines from Hart InterCivic of Austin last year, Parkins said. Before the purchase, Alexandria officials tested two types of machines: the Advanced Voting Solutions devices being used in Fairfax and the ones made by Hart.

Arlington elections officials said their touch-screen machines which debuted in November performed reasonably well. A few machines did crash, said Donna Patterson, deputy registrar.

Unlike Fairfax elections officials, those in Arlington decided to call results in the traditional way by phone rather than rely on modems and servers, Patterson said.