Making sure your vote counts

By Colleen Gundlach

A process that began with the voting debacle in Florida during the 2000 Presidential election comes to fruition on November 6, 2007, when Connecticut residents use the new AccuVote OS Optical Scan (OS) machines to choose their municipal leaders. The Help America Vote Act, signed into law by President Bush in 2002, contained many election mandates, including the requirement for more modern voting machines, as well as federal funding to help pay for them.

On July 30, 2007, Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced that the old style, lever voting machines were to be replaced by the OS machines for use in the upcoming November elections. This announcement came after the state had distributed 1,538 machines to all of the state’s cities and towns, at a cost of $15.7 million dollars. Connecticut received 32.7 million dollars in grant money from the federal government to purchase the OS technology and to train election workers.

Norfolk Registrars of Voters, Barbara Tracey and Kevin O’Connor, have been conferring with state officials on the proper use of the machines and on planning operating procedures for Election Day. Tracey and O’Connor joined Norfolk’s election workers, Carl Gundlach, Colin Tait, Keith Harvill, Madeline Falk, and Donna Calder in attending recent training sessions conducted by the Secretary of State’s office. Each of them has been certified in the use of the new machines, and will be in attendance at future elections.

When voters go to the polls on November 6, they will find the validating procedure much the same as it has always been, with a photo identification being required. The voter will be provided with a ballot by the Ballot Clerk, then directed to a privacy booth. Unlike the old lever machines, the privacy booth does not have a curtain. Instead, it is a desk with three side panels that are intended to provide privacy while the voter marks the ballot.  Registrar Tracey says, “The ballot should not prove too difficult for Norfolkians to manage – we are after all, a knowledgeable town. It’s like taking the SATs [Scholastic Aptitude Tests]. You just have to fill in the little circle.”

After completing the ballot, the voter proceeds to the OS and inserts the ballot for counting. The optical scanner then records the vote and the ballot drops into a locked box in the machine. Absentee ballots will follow the same format.

In order to ensure that the OS machines are tamper-proof and accurate, the Connecticut legislature has passed Public Act 07-194, which requires the state to conduct random audits of 10% of all polling districts in all future statewide elections. The results of such audits will be analyzed by the University of Connecticut and presented to the State Elections Enforcement Commission and ultimately to the public. “This law ensures that regular and thorough audits are conducted in an open, transparent process,” said Bysiewicz, “and that voters can have the highest confidence that their vote is being counted.”

Tracey and O’Connor plan to hold an open house prior to November’s election to allow people to try out the OS machines in a mock election. In addition, manual and video demonstrations will be held on Election Day at Norfolk Town Hall to help ease the transition.

Colleen Gundlach

cgundlach@snet.net

860.542.6054