Casting a ballot in Westchester County is catching up with the electronic age.

County Residents going to the polls beginning with the primary elections, September 14th, and the November general elections, will be confronted with something new: optical scan electronic voting machines. They are up-to-date devices, but the voting process is seemingly a trifle more complicated than with the traditional lever style machines they are replacing. The lever type machine has been used, in one form or another, for over a century.

Chosen by the County Board of Elections, the optical scan machines are different enough for the Board to be conducting a "Voter Outreach and Education" campaign announced this month to acquaint residents with their operation. The educational effort, running into October, is giving interested attendees at six forum dates set at five locations, to see the new voting machines, "up close and personal," as the BOE's announcement stated.

About the voters, Board of Elections Commissioner Carolee Sunderland said, "...we want them to feel as comfortable as possible with the new process."
"We join other counties in the metropolitan area and beyond who are using the new optical scan machines," Commissioner Reginald LaFayette, said, adding that, "People don't always like change and we want them to let them see and test out the new machines to make the transition a smooth one."

Town and municipal clerks also are to have the new machines in their offices to give voters a pre-use awareness of how they operate, according to a County Board of Elections announcement. The County BOE mandated the replacement of the old machines because of a federal law called the "Help America Vote Act." That legislation was enacted in part because of the storm that erupted over disputed votes during the 2002 presidential elections. It required that states and localities improve their election procedures.

The new process calls for voters to be given a paper ballot and "privacy screen," and then be provided a place to fill out the ballot. They then place their paper ballot in the optical scanner and are able also to check it for accuracy.

Special apparatus is also available to help those with various disabilities to vote.

A list of the locations and dates for the instructional forums and detailed descriptions on how to use the new voting machines are available at the following Westchester County BOE website: http://citizenparticipation.westchestergov.com/index.php?option=com_cont...