THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 13, 1997 TAG: 9702130304
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: 72 lines
The last of the 850-pound voting machines in South Hampton Roads finally have gone the way of manual typewriters, rotary dial telephones and cranked adding machines.
Taking the place of the mechanical monsters, 15-pound computerized AccuVote ballot processors will debut here in the June primary.
Portsmouth's new $265,000 voting system is ``the most advanced equipment available,'' registrar Deloris Overton said.
``We are the last city in South Hampton Roads to give up the old machines,'' she said. ``But this puts us ahead of the other cities for right now.''
Newport News and Hampton still use the curtained, levered monsters. Norfolk, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach use a punch card system, and Suffolk has an electronic machine that eliminates printed ballots.
Portsmouth's new system requires only one small processing unit at each precinct. Voters will be given a printed paper ballot to mark - either in the privacy of a booth or at an open table. Then they'll feed their own ballots into the machine, where it will be recorded electronically.
The machine will hold the paper ballots, so if a breakdown occurs, the marked ballots can be used for an audit.
When the last votes are cast, the machines instantly will produce the precinct totals. The tally will be transmitted by modem to a tabulating machine at City Hall to produce election results almost immediately.
City Manager Ronald Massie said he responded to Overton's request for the new system because it was cost-effective.
``We've had to spend a lot of money every election to get the old machines fixed, and we spend a lot of money and energy moving them around,'' Massie said. ``They're obsolete, and they take a lot of storage space. Now we can put the whole city in a closet between elections.''
The city has a lease-purchase agreement to pay $265,000 for 31 processors - one for each precinct - plus the headquarters tabulator and several privacy tables for each location.
And it has 82 of the big old voting machines for sale, including eight bought for at $1,200 apiece before the 1995 presidential election.
``We've been trying to find someone who needs them,'' Overton said. ``But most places have gone to the new systems, and I don't know if we're going to be able to get anything but scrap prices for them.''
Overton said the new process should speed up voting because people will be able to vote at their own speed, taking as little or as much time as needed without delaying voters behind them.
Preparation for elections will be simplified, she said. Instead of a city crew transporting 82 machines that weigh 850 pounds apiece to 31 locations, election officials will pick up the 15-pound processors and take them to the polling places. Lightweight tables to hold the machines will be distributed by the same crews who previously hauled the big machines around town.
The potential for machine troubles will be decreased dramatically, Overton said.
This week, election officials have been trained by representatives of Global Elections Systems, the New York manufacturer of the machines.
Overton said she and members of her staff are attending meetings all around the city to demonstrate the new system and will be happy to visit any group that wants to know more about the new machines. Residents also can stop by the Registrar's Office on the first floor of City Hall to see the system.
Overton said she will demonstrate the new machine during the NEAT Summit at Willett Hall on Saturday.
``It's really going to be so much easier for everybody, but people are sometimes afraid of change,'' she said. ``I want everybody to be familiar with it before the next election.'' ILLUSTRATION: BILL TIERNAN
The Virginian-Pilot
Portsmouth registrar Deloris Overton says that 15-pound computerized
ballot processors, part of the model voting station at foreground,
will replace 850-pound mechanical monsters, right.