Handheld gadget lets precinct verify voters immediately at poll

David Ellis saw a need, and he pounced.

Election officials' workloads had increased with new laws passed in the past decade, and most corporations had turned their attention to supplying ''big ticket'' items, such as voting machines, he said.

The Bradley County administrator of elections focused on the little stuff, developing with a programmer in Friendship, Tenn., a handheld gadget to confirm registered voters at the polls.

He calls it a ''Precinct Digital Assistant,'' PDA. It can hold a chip with 650,000 names and addresses of registered voters. It prevents having to phone election commission headquarters every time there's a question about whether a person is registered or where the person should vote.

''We want to ensure that voters are not waiting 30 or 40 minutes in a line while we discern their status,'' he said.

Knox County used a dozen of Ellis' PDAs in a February primary, and ''it was great,'' said Knox County Election Administrator Greg Mackay.

''A guy at one precinct said it saved 50 phone calls,'' Mackay said, adding that 20 had been ordered for the August primary and general election.

Rutherford County is among others that plan to use them Nov. 2. Hooper Penuel, election administrator there, said a PDA would be at about 20 of the largest precincts.

The cost?

$60 a precinct a day, Ellis said. His county gets them free.