Wisconsin Elections Board Considers Electronic Poll Books

By Kyle Maichle, Editor of Wisconsin Election Watch,

MADISON – During Tuesday’s public meeting of the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, there was a report released about whether the State of Wisconsin should adopt electronic poll books for voter registration.

A thirteen page memorandum described about the concept of an electronic poll book and which states that currently use it.  The memorandum described that electronic poll books can be used: “to process Election Day voter registrations, allowing for the speedy upload of those voter registrations into the SVRS (Statewide Voter Registration System) instead of time consuming data entry, which introduces human errors into the process.”  Also, an electronic poll book can help with Election Night reporting as it would allow for an immediate upload of data.   Additionally, electronic poll books can be used to direct voters who show up at the wrong polling place by giving them their correct location and printing out accompanying directions.

More: GAB Considers Poll Place Technology

The memorandum mentioned the usage of electronic poll books in the States of Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Ohio.  Electronic poll books started in Iowa in 2009 as a test in Cerro Gordo County.  The county tested with electronic poll books as they dealt with very troubling observations during the November 2008 Presidential election.   Also, Iowa Election officials found that poll workers had difficulty in navigating Iowa’s election procedures which are considered to be complex.  By the 2010 election, 40 counties in Iowa are using electronic poll books.  Currently, half of the state’s 99 counties use electronic methods to track voter registration.  The Iowa Secretary of State predicts that 70 counties will use electronic poll books by the 2014 Gubernatorial election.

The State of Michigan did not fully commit to using electronic poll books until 2008.   Currently, 80 percent of all jurisdictions in Michigan use the electronic poll book method to track voter registration.  Despite some poll workers in Michigan were hesitant to use electronic poll books, they are more comfortable with the new technology and resist going back to the traditional paper poll books.

Iowa and Michigan’s electronic poll book systems provide on-screen instructions that guide poll workers on the process based on their respective Election laws.

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The State of Ohio operates a different electronic poll book system than Iowa and Michigan in which the counties develop the poll books, not the State.   The poll books that are developed by the counties are integrated with the Statewide Voter Registration System.  Counties in Ohio are not mandated to use the electronic poll book system.  However, if counties desire to use electronic poll books, then it must be integrated with their own voter registration system.  The counties alone bear the financial costs of using electronic poll books.  Only 12 out of the state’s 88 counties use electronic poll books.

Minnesota, which has same day voter-registration, began to conduct a pilot with electronic poll books during its most recent election held on November 5, 2013.  The pilot was approved by an Act of the Minnesota Legislature.  The act that approved electronic poll books also ordered the creation of an Electronic Roster Task Force to deal with issues such as security along with importing driver’s license photos into the electronic poll book.  Poll workers in Minnesota liked the electronic poll book system as it allowed them to deal with same day voter registrations in an efficient manner.

The Government Accountability Board surveyed elections officials across the State of Wisconsin on electronic poll books.  Out of a total of 872 elections officials surveyed, 50.9% said that they had a preference for a paper poll book.  Only 7.7% indicated they would favor an electronic poll book.   34.3% said they did not have enough information to form an opinion.   When assessing the feelings of elections officials on electronic poll books, 575 of them had either a negative or mostly negative opinion.  This compares to the 92 who had a positive or mostly positive opinion.

Currently, Wisconsin Statutes approve the use of electronic poll books only if it’s approved by the Government Accountability Board.  The GAB will present is recommendations during the meeting scheduled on March 19, 2014.

Editor's Note-The article can be viewed at: http://wisconsinelectionwatch.com/12565/wisconsin-elections-board-considers-electronic-poll-books/