BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. – Paper ballots will meet digital technology when people cast their votes at the Sullivan County Elections Commission office in Blountville over the next two weeks.
Elections Administrator Gena Frye said Thursday that people stopping by the office to vote early for the Aug. 7 election will use optical scanning machines. Voting starts at 9 a.m. today.
The Tennessee General Assembly passed legislation earlier this year mandating the use of the technology across the state by the November 2010 election, she said.
According to the state Division of Elections, Sullivan County is one of three Tennessee counties to start using the new scanners this year. Roane County and Anderson County also will start using the technology this year, an election official said, while Hamilton County and Pickett County already have the device in place.
People using the new equipment – a Hart InterCivic eScan precinct scanner distributed by Harp Enterprises – will first fill out paper ballots at tables set up throughout the polling place. They will then take their ballot to the machine, which digitally scans it and records their vote and stores the paperwork in a secure ballot box.
“I feel good about it,” Frye said, as she demonstrated the machines Thursday with Chad Colgan, one of Harp Enterprises’ voting technicians. “It’s an easy system to use.”
Voters participating in the Aug. 7 election will cast ballots for candidates in the Republican and Democratic primaries for state and national offices, two county commission seats, county school board and county constables.
Colgan said the eScan machines offer three ways to record votes – a computer hard drive, a digital card and the original paper ballots. It will signal if a person votes more than once, or chooses more than one candidate running for a particular office, and it works seamlessly with the eSlate voting machines currently being used by the county.
Frye said each machine costs $5,500 and the ballots, which are printed by Harp Enterprises, cost $7.25 for a pack of 25. She said state government is offering money to purchase the machines through a special grant program but local governments must pay for storing the ballots and the machines.
Frye said the machines will only be used in Blountville for the August election’s early voting period. Two other machines are scheduled to be in place in Bristol and Kingsport for the November election’s early voting period, but Frye was uncertain when she would use the machines at the polls during an actual election.
gmclean@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2518
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