County shops for new voting machines

By MIKE JOHNSTON   Kittitas Daily Record   03 March 2005

Kittitas County is shopping for new election equipment and software to track voter registration thanks to a $244,000 federal grant. The new system should be in place sometime in August.

County commissioners on Tuesday approved a call for bids for new vote tabulator equipment that will replace a 15-year-old optical-scanning machine.

The tabulator is also an optical scanner and will continue to use paper ballots with votes marked by filling in an oval next to the candidate or proposition.

"The old machine has circuit-board technology. The new machine has up-to-date computer technology and digital capability," said former Kittitas County Auditor David Bowen, who in January became a county commissioner.

Present Auditor Jerry Pettit said the grant provides about $187,000 for the machine and $57,000 for software that will make the county's system compatible with the state's new voter registration system.

Election offices in the state's 39 counties are required by the state to install the new, state-approved voter registration system.

"All this will improve the efficiency of our elections and registration operations," Pettit said. "It will give us much more connectivity when it comes to transferring data. It all means less staff time."

Bowen, when he was county auditor, applied for the grant offered by the federal Help America Vote Act. The county learned it received the grant Feb. 1.

Bowen said the new ballot tabulator will be digital and will be more sensitive in scanning and recognizing pencil marks that represent voters' choices. It also will have the capability of printing ballots, which will reduce county printing costs.

He said the grant also will allow the purchase of 12 handicap voting units. This will allow people with hearing, sight or physical disabilities to make voting marks on their paper ballot by pushing a button.

It also comes with earphones that explains ballot choices in a step-by-step process that shows the voter their votes after each ion and then leads the voter to their next choice.

Sue Higginbotham, county elections supervisor, said the secretary of state's elections officials will test the new statewide voter registration system in late June or early July.

She said her staff wants to have the election and registration systems operational in August.