New Voting System Ensures Votes

Prior to the primary election, my husband and I participated in one of the multiple, well-publicized voting system practice sessions offered by Montgomery County. If a person has ever taken a questionnaire or test that requires filling in the bubbles, that’s how easy completing the new paper ballot was. Then we each took our paper ballot and fed it into a scanner, which was just like putting a dollar bill into a Coke machine. Who hasn’t done these things? 

On election day, when my husband fed his ballot into the scanner, it informed him that he hadn’t cast every vote that he could have. The machine operator asked him if that was his intention. It wasn’t; therefore, his ballot was returned so that he could correct it. As it turned out, he overlooked one of the choices. On the former electronic machines, his ballot would have been cast without the vote, which wouldn’t have fully expressed his intention. These skipped votes are called “undervotes” and in every election there are undervotes, sometimes many of them. In any change involving tens of thousands of people, it would be unrealistic to expect perfection. My husband and I regard elections seriously and are thrilled we now have a voting system that can verify everyone’s votes.

Beverly Hahn, Blue Bell