03.08.07
New Elections Administrator Prepares For May Election
From his AAS article, , we learn that all early voting for the May election will be done electronically.
All early voting will be electronic. Workers will be better trained to answer questions and assist with the electronic voting machines, and the election will be run much more professionally, said the county’s new elections administrator, Rick Barron.
He’s also going to spend some money.
Barron also plans to add 100 machines to the county’s current 100. That will cost $290,000 and will be covered by the federal Help America Vote Act, he said.
In the fall, Barron intends to buy precinct ballot counters that will let voters see that their ballots are counted before they leave the polling location, he said. Those machines will cost $250,000 to $270,000 and also will be paid for by the act, Barron said.
In the end, communication could be the key to whether the county voting system will regain the public’s trust.
“Confidence can always be restored,” John Davis, a county election judge said. “All you need is the election office working together, and you need somebody with great attention to detail.”
It looks like Mr. Barron has things headed in the right direction. But to restore confidence it takes more than that. It needs to be able to be proven to people that every vote has been counted and counted right.