Clay County precinct officials Marla Woelber, Dennis Price, Coreen Boernsen and Lisa Myers, from left, try out the county's new AutoMark voting machines. Besides having headphones, they also showcase a touch screen voters may cast ballots on. The completed ballot on an AutoMark is printed in the front of the machine and then transferred to be tabulated in an optical scanner.(Photos by Kris Todd)

Daily Reporter Staff

When Clay County voters walk into their respective polling sites on election day, they'll register to vote the same way they have in the past.

But the Sept. 9 school board election and the Nov. 4 general election will differ from recent years past in that voters will then be handed a paper ballot to vote on. It will be a one-sided ballot during next month's election, and a two-sided ballot with candidate names printed on both sides during the Nov. 4 general election.

It marks the third voting system Marjorie "Marj" Pitts has introduced to the public since being appointed Clay County's auditor and commissioner of elections on April 1, 1999.

The county's EV 2000 touch-screen machines became obsolete in 2002 when the federal government passed the Help America Vote Act and their maker, Fidlar-Doubleday, opted not to re-equip the machines with headphones, a required Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) component. This, coupled with the Secretary of State's decertifying voting machines without ADA components, forced Clay County to purchase Direct Recording Equipment (DRE) touch screens in 2000.

Iowa allowed counties to have "blended" (DRE and Optical Scan) systems between 2004 and 2006. But Iowa legislators altered things again in 2007 when they decided the entire state should host the same style of voting equipment. As of early 2008, Clay County was one of 19 counties with touch screens; the remaining 80 counties had Optical Scan paper ballot systems in place.

On April 1, Gov. Chet Culver signed into law that all counties will use an Optical Scan and AutoMark system by the November 2008 election. The state is paying approximately $150,000 for Clay County's new voting equipment.

Marjorie "Marj" Pitts, the Clay County Auditor and commissioner of elections, shows election workers a sample paper ballot voters will fill out during the Sept. 9 school board election.

"They do not dictate as to who the vendor is that we purchase the equipment from," Pitts explained, "but it is to be a paper ballot system. Which means an Optical Scan and an AutoMark."

On Sept. 9, each of the county's polling sites will feature paper ballots, one AutoMark terminal and one Optical Scan scanner that sets on a ballot box. By the Nov. 4 general election, all of the county's new voting equipment -- which includes 100 voting booths, 15 Optical Scan paper ballot scanners and 15 AutoMark terminals -- will be in use.

"We had the choice to stay with the DRE (system) for the school election, but it was my decision to go with the new equipment now because we needed to have an introduction to it, both the public and you guys," Pitts told precinct officials Friday morning during a public testing of the new equipment. "...(The switch is) pushing us, but we've been pushed before. We need to have this experience. I think it's (important), not only for the public, but for the people who are working it. This presidential election has the potential to be sticky."

The new system

Voters will register on election day and either receive a paper ballot or be escorted to the AutoMark terminal. Although anybody may use it, this ballot-marking system is designed to provide privacy and accessibility to voters who are blind, vision-impaired or have a condition that would make it difficult to mark a ballot in the usual way. The AutoMark sports earphones and an adjustable screen. When a voter on the AutoMark system has completed his or her ballot, it will be printed out. This paper ballot may then be protected in a "secrecy sleeve" while being transferred to the scanner.

"The security of ballots is something you're going to have a learning curve on," Pitts forewarned the the election workers Friday morning. "...By law, the only time we have to furnish a secrecy sleeve for the public is if the ballot has candidates on both sides. For the school election, it's only one side. ... But, in the presidential, we're going to be having a bigger ballot. It'll be an 8 1/2 by 14, and both sides are going to be used."

It was also noted during the testing session that if a voter changes his or her mind after filling out a paper ballot, an election worker may be asked to write "Spoil" on it. The voter would then be allowed to cast another ballot.

When Clay County voters officially cast their ballots on election day, they'll insert them into a scanner, which will read and tabulate it with others cast. Paper ballots deposited on the right side of the ballot box on wheels, which the Optical Scanner sits on, will mark votes for "regular" candidates; those that fall to the left signify votes for write-in candidates. The cart's front door hosts an "emergency bin" for ballots with errors on them.

Marj Pitts, center, answers a question posed by Spencer precinct workers Norm and Marla Woelber on one of the county's new Optic Scan machines as final tabulations from Friday's public testing were printed out.

The ticker tape this ballot box on wheels collects throughout the day will be printed out and read by precinct officials at the end of the night, a process that also occurred with the former DRE machines.

"We're accustomed to having results coming in after polls close. We're going to try to do the logistics so that we can still do that, but they (election workers) still have to be doing their count of write-ins," Pitts explained. "As far as a printout of the totals, after the polls close, which would be 8 p.m. in the case of the school election, they will print that report and immediately send somebody to the phone. They will be able to tell us the number of ballots cast for each candidate, no different than any other time. But when there's a write-in campaign, we will not know until they finish counting manually -- which is different from the DRE (system), where we would have known the same time as the regular candidates. By law, with these machines and tabulations, they have until noon the following day to tell us the total write-ins."

Officials look to upcoming elections

Eight county precinct officials -- Dennis Price, Shelley Krile, Norm and Marla Woelber, Judy Bevers, Genevieve Burger, Corrine Boernsen and Lisa Myers -- served as Friday's public testers of the new machines. Another meeting has been scheduled for precinct election officials on Thursday morning. They'll review the voting equipment and clarify procedures and the bookkeeping part of their jobs during this session.

Friday morning, the Woelbers of Spencer differed in their initial perspectives of the paper ballot system.

"I think this will seem to be fewer steps in the process of voting," she said. "To the general public, it might seem simpler because some people are afraid of machines. And if they can do a paper ballot, they can mark it like it used to be marked, then put it in the machine and then it will be counted."

"I think it's a step back in the voting process," he countered, "because the other way was a simple, one-step process. This is a two-step process. So I think it's a step back. But for the people who are used to voting a paper ballot, this is a lot simpler."

This smart card carries results from a day's worth of ballots cast.

Pitts, meanwhile, told the election workers during the testing session, "You guys are going to be dealing a lot more with paper. It may take the public a little bit longer to vote a ballot. But I don't know about that, because we've never voted on paper, really. So I don't know how it's going to go. But if they're used to walking in, touching a screen and leaving, it's going to take a little longer."

"It's a new thing. It will be a fine thing," she added. "...I think the public will adapt OK. It's a piece of paper. I think for the voters themselves, if they know what they want to vote for when they come into the booth, mark it and walk over to the scanner and put it in, there's no lag there. I don't know that they're going to notice any lag."