Electronic books making debut at polls

STEUBENVILLE -- Voters countywide will experience electronic poll books when they vote in Tuesday's general election.

The county board of elections used the electronic poll books in the primary election, when only 28 of the county's 71 precincts were open.

"It will be everywhere this election," said Diane Gribble, county board of elections director.

The electronic poll books replace the paper books poll workers used in the process of checking in voters when they arrive.

Voters, especially those in voting locations with more than one precinct, no longer will have to look for the table with their precinct number to check in, Gribble said. The voter can go to any table to check in. The poll worker will check the identification of the voter and swipe his or her driver's license. The voter then will sign his or her name on the electronic polling book, Gribble noted.

The electronic poll books will allow the line of voters to move quicker to the actual polls to cast a ballot.

"There is no waiting in line. If there are 10 people waiting to check in at a precinct then a table less busy will be able to take the overflow," Gribble added.

A poll worker will be able to encode the correct ballot, and the voter will place the access card in a voting machine. Voters can use any of the open machines at the polling location with more than one precinct, Gribble said.

"In a large election, it will be relatively quick to check in, go vote and be done," she noted.

If a person goes to the wrong voting location, a poll worker will be able to check voting records countywide using the electronic poll book and print out the address to the correct location. With the paper poll books, the poll workers would have had to call the board of elections office to check on the correct voting location.

Persons who have to vote using a provisional ballot will be sent to another poll worker at a table to complete the application to vote a that ballot. Gribble said this also will help speed up the check-in process for other voters.

The county was allotted $74,000 by the state to cover nearly one-half of the $151,000 price tag for the electronic poll books. The county commissioners approved funding from the emergency and computer funds, with remaining money coming from the board of elections' budget.

The electronic poll book will guarantee the correct ballot information on the access card, reducing human error in encoding the wrong ballot information, according to Gribble.

Voters still will have the option of requesting a paper ballot, she noted.

When the voting is over at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, the poll workers will be able to more quickly verify that the number of voters at a location equals the number of ballots cast at that location.

"It will be quicker to do the accounting at the end of the night," she said.

(Law can be contacted at mlaw@heraldstaronline.com.)