More Voters Choose Electronic Machines
published 09/19/2006
HONOLULU -- An increasing number of Hawaii voters are choosing to vote electronically in the second election with voting machines.
The numbers are in after the first week of early voting for Saturday's primary election. Where people are given a choice, many of them are switching from paper to electronic ballots.
A recently passed federal law called the Help America Vote Act required Hawaii and other states to provide electronic voting equipment to help the disabled and immigrants vote independently. Officials found that many other people are choosing to use the new machines.
At Honolulu Hale, the booths with the red, white and blue curtains are for old-style paper ballots and 11 machines allow for electronic balloting. Over the last week, 41 percent of the voters there voted electronically, even though the electronic voting booths make up just one-third of those available at City Hall.
Former Board of Education member Randal Yoshida voted electronically and liked it.
"I think that's a very good process, I think it's much quicker and it went very smoothly," Yoshida said.
Island-wide, the city clerk said that one-third of early voters have chosen electronic ballots so far. That's a lower percentage than at City Hall, because many of the rural voting sites have just a couple of electronic machines.
"It's reflective of the electronic age. Everyone's paying their bills online and doing things with machines and learning that there are adequate safeguards to make them feel comfortable doing it," Honolulu City Clerk Denise DeCosta said.
"I'm glad to see that it makes a paper trail as well, to me that's fairly important because of what happened in the last few elections," voter Alan Ewell said.
The electronic machines print out a paper record of a voter's choices as part of a triple redundancy. Some voters still aren't convinced about the electronic devices.
"I chose paper because I'm used to it and I like filling in a box and knowing that my vote counted," voter Greg Boorsma said.
Voters casting ballots on Saturday in the primary election won't see as many electronic voting machines as there are at City Hall. That's because each of the state's 353 precincts has only one electronic voting machine.
The new machines offer headphone audio service for the blind or those who have trouble reading. Voters can also enlarge the print on the screen.
"It's mainly to help the disabled voter, but it's become popular with all voters," DeCosta said.