Ballot problem could prolong count tonight
By Donna Hilton, The Daily Siftings Herald
May 23, 2006
 
Counting the votes cast today could take longer than usual because some of the paper ballots must be hand-counted, said Karen Wieman, coordinator of the Clark County Election Commission.

The county normally uses a digital scanner to count paper ballots. That scanner will be used when possible, Wieman said, but not all paper ballots are correctly coded for the scanner. "There was a problem with some of the ballots," so those will have to be hand-counted.

Some ballots had to be printed on plain paper when ballots were not received in time for early voting. County Clerk Rhonda Cole said Election Systems and Software, the company responsible for programming the electronic voting machines, was supposed to have ballots printed in time for early voting. The county did not have ballots until late in the day on May 8, the first day of voting. The ballot information was e-mailed to Cole, who printed the ballots and made copies on an ordinary copy machine. Since the ballots are not coded individually, they cannot be counted through the scanning machine, Wieman said.
 
More ballots had to be copied during early voting when Cole's office ran out of ballots in some precincts. "We never had this problem when ballots were printed locally," Cole said.

As a result, those ballots will have to be counted individually, by hand. Wieman hopes to start that process early today. "Joyce Palla (a member of the county election commission) is lining up volunteers to help us count ballots," Wieman said.

Commissioners planned to start counting those early ballots at 1 p.m. today. "We want to be able to have some of the counts done before the polls close," Wieman said.
 
More than 1,000 county residents cast their ballots during the early-voting period before the election, said Sharon Taylor of the Clark County clerk's office. Citizens could early vote on either paper ballots or use the Ivotronic electronic voting machine. Approximately half the early votes were cast electronically.

Votes cast on the Ivotronic are recorded on a memory card inside the voting machine, as well as on a paper strip in the machine. Once the polls close, any paper ballots must be counted either by hand or scanner, and the results from the machines must be retrieved. All of those numbers will have to be added together to get the results. "It's going to be a long night," Wieman said.

Votes will be counted in the District Courtroom of the Clark County Court Complex, and totals will be announced as they become available. The public is invited to attend.