Machines ready for early voting
By DAVE PAYNE Sr.Article Photos
PARKERSBURG - The voting machines are ready and waiting for the general election.
Wood County commissioners verified the seals of the county's voting machines Monday in preparation for early voting starting on Oct. 15.
The seals will remain on the machines until commissioners inspect them once again to make sure no one has tampered with the machines.
Wood County Clerk Jamie Six told commissioners the county has doubled the number of early voting machines from eight to 16.
"About 25 percent of voters will vote early. That changes the entire scope of the election. It used to be candidates needed to peak on election day. Now, with so many people voting early, candidates have to plan their media buys accordingly," Six said.
The county has also added one machine for each of the precincts this year, he said.
As of Monday, 145 absentee ballots have been sent to military personnel overseas and 374 people have voted absentee already, Six said. Absentee ballots must be received by Oct. 29, Six said.
The last day to register is Oct. 14. Early voting begins Oct. 15 and ends Nov. 1
Six said the computer balloting requires more manpower than the old paper ballots, which required less advance work, but were expensive to print.
"It is expensive to print a (paper) ballot. I think Kanawha County is paying $2 a ballot to print theirs. With the computers, the work ahead has really increased, but election night is less. The increased work load ahead of the election is tremendous, but the benefits are accuracy and ease of the voter," he said.
Just checking the machines for accuracy, calibrating the pressure required to activate the touch screens and other procedures to make sure the equipment is in good working order requires about 370 man hours, Six said.
Those checks did reveal one problem, no write-in box for the Vienna mayor's race. An emergency meeting of the Wood County Board of Ballot Commissioners (with Democrats and Republicans represented) was called Friday to address the issue.
The city of Vienna was notified and after the city confirmed there were no write-in candidate and since the deadline for a write-in candidate to file had passed, the board unanimously voted to proceed with the ballot, Six said.
Had there been a write-in-candidate, the computers would have been reprogrammed, he said.
Six said he expected this year's turnout to be up even for a general election.
"Of course we expect this to be a good turnout year with the presidential race, but we also have all these things that will bring people in. If you're a school-bus driver, you might come in for the school levy, or if you have an interest in the airport, you might come in to vote on that or for any of the Parkersburg city races," Six said.
