Richmond elections to be touch and go
By Jenny Smith    The Commonwealth Times
Published: Monday, November 7, 2005

Touch-screen machines have made checking yourself out at the grocery store and getting money from ATMs quick and easy. On Tuesday, VCU students and other Richmond-area residents will use touch screens for a more civic-minded purpose: to vote for governor.

Many localities in Virginia will use high-tech voting machines for the first time in a general election. Election officials say the machines are more reliable and easier to use than punch cards and older methods.

But some citizens may be apprehensive about the machines.

"Anytime you have a change of voting equipment, someone will feel uneasy about it," Showalter said. "(But) it's no more difficult than using an ATM machine."

Richmond has used its touch-screen WINVote machines once before - for party primary elections in June.

"They worked beautifully," said J. Kirk Showalter, Richmond's voter registrar. "People loved them."

Richmond is upgrading its voting system thanks to the Help America Vote Act of 2002. Congress passed this law in response to the voting fiasco of 2000, when "hanging chads" on punch-card ballots threw the presidential election into turmoil.

Under the new law, the old punch-card voting systems and mechanical-lever machines in Virginia must be replaced by January 2006.

The new machines will cost $3.1 million in Virginia. Federal reimbursement will pay $1.5 million of the amount. As of Sept. 1, all but three of Virginia's 90 jurisdictions had d with either touch-screen or optical-scan machines.

Richmond's WINVote machines replaced the city's lever machines. They cost $1.16 million, with the city paying $479,000.

Showalter said the costs are well worth it, especially for voters who have disabilities.

WINVote machines have a zoom option for voters who cannot read the print at normal size. The devices even feature an audio option and can read aloud the names of candidates.

"For the blind, they've never been able to vote on their own until now," Showalter said.

Voters who use a wheelchair can have the touch screen lowered or taken off the platform and placed in their laps or held in front of them.

Still, there are concerns about high-tech voting machines, which occasionally have malfunctioned elsewhere.

One of the most notable failures was Fairfax County's elections on Nov. 4, 2003. Of the 1,000 touch-screen machines purchased that year, 154 crashed or had power or printing problems.

"In any election, something is going to fail during the process," Showalter said. "We always have a backup plan for failures. The way the machines are built, if they go down, the votes are not lost."

In case of a power outage, Richmond's machines can run on batteries for five hours.

Concerns about hackers altering election results are unfounded, said Showalter. The machines are not accessible through the Internet. When a vote is cast, the machine sends it to a central unit not accessible from the voting booth.

Another apprehension is that touch-screen machines do not emit a receipt. Without such a paper trail, some critics say it would be impossible to recount votes.

However, Showalter is not concerned. She said the machines are equipped with a camera that takes a digital picture of every vote cast. The pictures can be printed out if there is a call for a recount.

Jerry Ingram, head technician for the WINVote machines in Richmond, said she is excited about the switch.

"People really like this," she said. "It's wonderful. It's important for us to get the message across-don't be afraid to vote."