New Voting Machines Demonstrated in Northport

Suffolk County voters found themselves using new machinery and ballots at the polls for the primary elections in September and all did not go smoothly. 

Hence, representatives from the county's Board of Elections criss-crossed Suffolk demonstrating the new system to citizens between then and now.

After an overview of the system from Peter DeNigris, a trainer, and Hope Archer, polling place coordinator, visitors to the Thursday, Oct. 7 had a chance to try it out and  ask questions, sometimes deliberately making errors to test the technology's responses.

Gone are the mechanical levers and curtained areas, replaced by paper ballots, scanners and privacy booths, all part of a federally mandated changeover brought about by Florida's fiasco in the 2000 presidential election. New York State becomes the last state to fall in line with the Help America Vote Act, which, among other things, requires a paper trail of each vote cast.

After checking in at a polling place, voters will proceed to the new booths, mark their ballots and then take them to a scanner designed to read and record their choices in about 12 seconds. Polling places with multiple electoral districts will have machines designated for each district, which will not be able to accept ballots from other districts.

Voters will mark their choices by filling in ovals on paper ballots, which could be two sided, with candidate contests on one side, referendum or questions on the other.

DeNigris said the machines had the ability to address or head off several problems, such as "over voting" (making too many choices in any given category), ambiguous markings, such as using a checkmark or X instead of filling out the oval, or ballots that are blank.

People who overvote will hear from the machine, literally, which beeps to warn voters of the error and asks them in an on-screen message if they still want to cast that ballot or revote. If the voter proceeds with the overvote ballot, every selection on the ballot is counted except that in the overvoted category. The machine will return ballots with ambiguous markings so voters can fix them.

Archer said the goal of the new system was to ensure "quality elections that are fair, honest and private."

To see a video demonstration, go here.