Changes are coming to the ballot box in Franklin County, where election officials are upgrading antiquated voting machines with $12 million worth of new equipment that will be up and running for the May 7 primary election, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
The Dispatch reports that the new voting machines are part of a “hybrid system that combines touch-screen and hand-marked options, all involving paper ballots and optical scanners.”
As such, the new system will allow Franklin County residents “the option of voting [in-person] on paper if they’re more comfortable with that,” Ed Leonard, director of the Franklin County Board of Elections, told Dispatch reporter Marc Kovac.
The county's 2,500-plus new touch-screen machines, purchased from Omaha, Neb.-based Elections Systems & Software, work much like the older equipment they're replacing.
But, per Kovac, instead of finishing up by pressing a blinking red “Vote” button and then collecting an “I voted!” sticker on the way out the door, voters will need to wait for their machine to print a “ballot card”. Those who choose to forgo the touchscreen will simply mark their ballot cards by hand.
Voters will insert their ballot cards into the “ballot slot” of “[a] ballot scanner and vote tabulator” called a DS200 to complete the voting process, Kovac reports.
The last day to register for the May 7 primary election is April 8; absentee voting begins the next day. Click here to register to vote.
Posts
