Changes In The Voting Booth

With a governor, a US Senator, a US Representative, and state senators and representatives to elect on November 7, Connecticut voters will have a lot to consider in the voting booths this year. In Newtown, voters will not only have to think about whom to vote for but also how they are going to cast the ballot.

The Secretary of the State’s office announced this week that Newtown would be one of just a handful of communities that will be casting ballots using the optical scanning technology recently adopted by the state to comply with federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requirements. The act was adopted in 2002 to help restore voter trust and confidence in the balloting process after the 2000 voting fiasco in Florida.

As recently as last year, it appeared that the Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz was about to trade in Connecticut’s trusty old mechanical voting machines for a touch screen technology — known as direct recording electronic (DRE) machines — that was both more expensive and less reliable that other available technologies. After a concerted campaign against the DRE machines by citizens, skeptical registrars of voters, and the advocacy group TrueVote CT, the state’s chief election official wisely changed course and backed the use of optical scanning machines, which have the added advantage of producing a voter-verified paper record of results.

In addition, the new voting system will provide disabled voters with their first opportunity to cast ballots privately and independently with a Vote By Phone system this November.

We welcome any new technology that enhances our ability to vote and to count every vote quickly and accurately. We hope, however, that the new voting system is deployed by the state and tested in Newtown in plenty of time for the local registrars and election officials to adequately prepare the public for the changes in voting procedures this year. Sorting out the issues at the end of a long and hotly contested election campaign is tough enough for voters without having to face an unfamiliar balloting procedure in the voting booth. Often the simplest changes seem difficult when they are first encountered. But with adequate organization and public education, casting the ballot can remain a routine and easy part of the process.