With roughly six weeks left before the next election in Sunflower County, the process of casting ballots and having them accurately counted will be facilitated by two new pieces of technology. According to Sunflower County Circuit Clerk Carolyn P. Hamilton, both voters and election officials will benefit from a TSX touch screen system voting machine and a poll pad (Toshiba tablet). When elections go live, voters will enter their precincts and complete a paper ballot in a private booth. Once the ballots are complete, “Voters will take their completed ballot to the voting machine (TSX touch screen) to be scanned,” Hamilton explained. “The machine will display the voter’s scanned ballot to ensure that they have made the choice in candidates that they desire.”
Much of the electronic protocols were put in place because of the issues associated with hanging chads and pregnant chads of the 2000 Bush-Gore presidential election. Hamilton explained that although digital casting of ballots is the norm now, all 82 counties in the state of Mississippi must be in compliance with a system that allows for the printing of ballots. This is just another layer of accuracy for a system that has fallen under scrutiny since the most recent presidential election.
The TSX system’s aim is the insurance of accuracy and the production of an outcome where the intention of the voter is reflected. “If, for instance, someone votes for two candidates in the same race, the machine will kick that ballot back out and it will be considered spoiled. The poll manager will put that ballot in a sealed ballot envelope,” stated Hamilton.
The second piece of technology helps election officials such as commissioners and poll workers keep updated voter rolls. The poll pads help reduce and almost eliminate some of the issues such as unnecessary voter purging and signature issues. According to Hamilton, in years past, some older systems would automatically purge voters from the rolls if they missed voting in two consecutive presidential elections.
Poll pads have an interface with other state agencies that allows election officials to know when a voter passes away or has committed some disenfranchising crime. “Poll pads also have a feature that scans driver’s licenses,” Hamilton said. “This allows us to compare signatures when they sign the roll at the polling precinct on the voter receipt book. We will be able to determine if this is the pen stroke of the voter or a family member.”
Hamilton and her staff have been in numerous trainings on the new systems for weeks leading up to the elections, and she is raving about the simplicity and user-friendliness of it all. The circuit clerk has made the pitch for several months to the Sunflower County Board of Supervisors to put these systems in place for the November Congressional and Judicial election. That way, the county would be better prepared to implement something of greater magnitude for the 2023 elections since it will feature several more races and candidates.
Going to the TSX system and poll pads also saves Sunflower County costs on data conversion, subscriptions fees, tech support, and maintenance costs that may have been vaguely woven into previous contractual agreements. The bottom line though is that citizens can go to the polls in a few weeks and cast their ballots with much more confidence than they did less than two years ago.
“I like the new system because it’s another way to gain voter confidence,” Hamilton said. “The system also allows for recapture and recount of an election, if necessary, with far more accuracy and less human error.”
