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Electronic poll books expected save money and time

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By Lauren Pack, Staff Writer 6:57 PM Tuesday, February 21, 2012

HAMILTON — Cumbersome paper poll books will become a thing of the past in the March primary elections when voters and workers begin using electronic signature pads.

As part of a litigation settlement involving a glitch during the March 2008 primary election that caused 200 votes to go uncounted, Butler County received $1.5 million worth of equipment and services last year.

The new electronic poll books will enable workers to quickly find any voter in the database and determine if they are in the correct polling place, issue a ballot and record it. The estimated savings for taxpayers is more than $40,000 per election, according to Jocelyn Bucaro, county board of elections director.

“The electronic poll books will virtually eliminate provisional ballots cast by voters in the right polling location, but at the wrong precinct table,” Bucaro said. “The poll books in multi-precinct locations will be interconnected, enabling our poll workers to process all of the voters eligible to cast ballots at that polling place without requiring them to check in at a specific precinct table.”

The system will also allow poll workers to assist voters who visit an incorrect polling location by doing a county-wide search on the electronic books and printing out the correct location and address for the voter.

Electronic signature pads are connected to the Express Poll-5000 units, enabling each voter to sign in on the pad. The signature is then immediately presented on screen next to the voter’s archived digital signature image within the county’s voter registration files. Side-by-side presentation of the current and archived signature will expedite the signature validation process and provide a large, clear presentation of the signatures for poll workers, officials said.

Poll worker training at the board of elections began Feb. 6 and although Bucaro said some said they didn’t want to take part in the new technology training, “we have had very few.”

She said the Montgomery County Board of Elections implemented the electronic poll books in the November 2011 general election with great success.

Bucaro said cost saving will be realized because the “printing of poll books will no longer be necessary, which will be a huge savings, and the extra staff and overtime hours will be significantly reduced as the voter history following the election will be uploaded electronically rather than manually.”

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