Update on New Voting Technology – What to look forward to for November Election
The Town of Madison will be using new AccuVote OS Optical Scan Voting Machines for the November 2007 Election. Rather than pull levers for the candidates, voters will fill in ovals on a ballot sheet, similar to lottery ticket forms and standardized test sheets. The voter will fill out the paper ballot in a “privacy booth”, which has a table and barriers on three sides so that no one can see their ballot. Once the ballot is completed, it is placed in an optical scanner for counting. The machines will generate a paper trail, so that if necessary, recounts can be conducted accurately. According to the Secretary of the State’s Office, optical scan is the most common form of voting technology in the country today. Currently, 26 states use the optical scan machines, including Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont.
Demonstrations of the new voting equipment will be taking place over the next several months. As soon as the dates, time and place of these demonstrations have been determined, we will post the information on this website.
