by Bea Peterson
On Tuesday, September 14, voters will find some changes when they go to the polls for the primaries and for the general election in November.
Bonnie Becker of the Rensselaer County Board of Elections demonstrated the process at the Schaghticoke Fair last week. The Board of Elections has also put out a brochure explaining the
new “voting on the paper ballot-optical scan system.”
With the new system, voters will sign in at the Inspector table as usual. They will then be handed a paper ballot and a cardboard folder to conceal the ballot. Voters will then go to a privacy booth where they will use a special marking pen to fill in the oval next to the candidate of their choice. It is important that the voter mark the ballot by completely darkening the oval next to the choice with the pen provided. The ballot will look like the ballot face on the old voting machines. There will be a special box for write-in candidates. Voters are encouraged to check over their ballot before leaving the privacy booth. If a mistake is made, ask for a new ballot, do not try to erase a mistake.
Once the ballot is filled out voters will take it to the new Image Cast Optical Scanner. They will place either end of the ballot into the scanner slot. If the ballot is marked correctly the LCD screen informs the voter that the ballot has been cast.
If, by chance, a voter filled in the same candidate on two different party lines, the first party line will count. If a voter selected more candidates than the office allows, the votes for that office will not count, but the rest of the ballot will be counted. If the voter selected more than the offered positions or ballot questions the LCD machine will display “over-vote.” The voter may “cast” the ballot with the over-vote or return the ballot to an Inspector and receive a new ballot. Once the ballot is scanned, it falls inside the machine. The vote is stored in the machine and, at the close of the polls, the number of voters and all the candidate and ballot question totals are immediately known. If there is a problem, the paper ballots are available for review.