Voting precincts to use wireless technology

Dayton Business Journal    01 November 2005

Cincinnati Bell Inc. will provide wireless service to polling workers in the 548 precincts of the Montgomery County Board of Elections on Nov. 8, the company announced Tuesday. 
 
The agreement is worth $6,500, according to Steven Harsman, director of the election board.

On Election Day, the county will operate 370 polling locations serving about 370,000 registered voters across the 548 precincts. Approximately 2,200 poll workers will assist the 125,000 to 145,000 voters expected to turnout. Each precinct will have a Cincinnati Bell wireless phone so that poll workers can communicate with election officials. The board will pay $10 per phone and will have one in each precinct, with an additional 102 phones sprinkled through the area for trouble shooting, Harsman said.

"For months, we've been hard at work to ensure Election Day will run smoothly with the new electronic voting machines," Harsman said, adding that the wireless technology would boost efficiency.

According to the announcement, Montgomery County is the largest jurisdiction in the nation to implement an electronic voting system combined with a voter verifying audit paper trail. Locally, the move to electronic voting is intended to ease the voting process and eliminate the errors associated with punch cards.