Syracuse, NY - The retail cost of paper ballots for Onondaga County’s new optical-scan voting machine is a whopping 57 cents each. So Onondaga County elections officials decided to print their own. As the Board of Elections planned for Tuesday’s primary — the first time the new voting machines will be used countywide — commissioners decided to save money...
James Pope of Syracuse starts one of the ImageCast paper ballot-optical scan system voting machines on its journey from the Onondaga County Board of Elections warehouse in DeWitt towards a polling place. Pope works for Moriarty Trucking Services. Syracuse, NY - The retail cost of paper ballots for Onondaga County’s new optical-scan voting machine is a whopping 57 cents each. So Onondaga County elections officials decided to print their own.
As the Board of Elections planned for Tuesday’s primary — the first time the new voting machines will be used countywide — commissioners decided to save money by having the county print shop prepare the 50,000 ballots needed.
County workers printed the 11.5- by 18-inch ballots for an estimated 17 cents each, a savings of roughly $20,000 for the primary, said Helen “Pinky” Kiggins, Republican elections commissioner.
“We think they’re going to work fine,” Kiggins said of the ballots. “We have our fingers crossed.”
Procuring paper ballots is just one of the headaches elections officials around the state have had to deal with this year as they junk their familiar old voting machines — the kind with metal levers behind a curtain — and move into the digital age.
A sample ballot is inserted into an ImageCast paper ballot-optical scan system voting machine on display at the Onondaga County Board of Elections. The paper ballots must be stored for 22 months after the election, at which point the paper can be recycled, said Ed Ryan, Onondaga County’s Democratic elections commissioner.
The 50,000 ballots for the primary weigh one ton, Kiggins said.
“We are killing so many trees,” she said.
During a pilot test of the voting machines in November, voters in many counties complained about feeling a lack of privacy when they voted without a curtain behind them. In response to those complaints, elections officials in many counties have made several changes.
Twenty of Onondaga County’s 175 polling sites were relocated to more spacious locations, for example, so that voters will be further away from election inspectors and others when they fill out ballots, Kiggins said. Election officials drew up precise floor plans for each site to preserve privacy, she said.
The county also will provide folders this year so that voters can hide their ballots as they walk to the machine. And inspectors have been trained not to assist voters unless asked, Kiggins said.
“We stressed it at all our training — do not hover near the machine,” she said.
About 40 percent of Onondaga County voters used the new machines in last year’s election. In the surrounding counties, all voters used them.
Cherl Heary, Republican election commissioner in Cayuga County, said she hopes the process is smoother this year. Cayuga County tried printing its own ballots last year, and many of them were rejected by the machines, she said.
“The ink was not of the quality we needed,” Heary said. Cayuga County officials decided to buy ballots this year.
Kiggins said Onondaga County’s ballots have worked in the machines during trials.
Contact Tim Knauss at tknauss@syracuse.com or 470-3023.
New voting machines
Voters in all Central New York counties will use the Dominion ImageCast voting machine Tuesday.
How: Voter uses felt pen to fill in ovals on paper ballot, then feeds ballot into machine.
Over-voting: The machine will display an error message if more than one candidate is selected for a race. Voter can press “return” to get the ballot back, or “cast” to have the ballot accepted without recording a vote in the double-voted contest.
Rejections: The machine will automatically return the ballot if it cannot read it. Try to reinsert it, or get a new ballot if that fails.
Write-ins: The machine detects ink in the write-in area and sends the ballot into a separate box to be read manually.
» Related story: Some worry new voting machines could lead to voting debacle in New York