This week I want to focus on a couple of upcoming trends in elections administration that you ought to prepared for.  By now you know that most of the voting machines have been sold and statewide voter registration systems are for the most part up and running.

This means that elections vendors have to find new ways to keep up a revenue stream to finance new R&D and on going operations.  One way this is happening is with new Electronic Pollbooks.  An electronic pollbook (let’s call it EP) is a device (laptop, palmtop, point-of-sale system) that allows you to swipe ID cards (such as driver’s license cards) and automatically pull up voters.  These systems replace printed pollbooks and allow easy verification of voters and eligibility. 

 Some of the benefits of these systems are:  

1. Eliminate the cost and time to print pollbooks.  Free up staff to deal with other election preparation.
2. Improve speed of looking up voters.  A simple swipe of an ID card or license automatically brings up the correct voter. No more fumbling through pollbooks        .
3. Reduced line length, removes the necessity to break lines up into A-K, L-Z. No more criticism that some lines are long while others are short.
4. Correctly identifies eligibility and ballot styles.
5. Updates county database and prevents double voting. Can stop double voting during early vote periods.
6. Allows quick monitoring of voter turnout activity.
7. Provides instant update of voter history.  No more manual barcode scanning of pollbook pages.  Frees up staff time for other tasks.
8. Also can direct voters to the correct polling location, along with directions and maps.

These are some of the major benefits of these systems.  However, they are not without their problems and concerns.  Like any new piece of technology you must be prepared to use them.  They are going to be expensive, they will have to be stored and maintained.  You will have to test them before each election and make sure they are ready for use.

 I have also made this comment to EP vendors, especially if their background is in voter registration systems: these systems are now going to be used during Election Day (or early vote, or absentee in-house).  This means that the public will see them and interface with them.  This isn’t like VR that runs in the background and isn’t seen by the public.  I think the DRE vendors can tell you about how careful you have to be about the equipment and way it is perceived.  The same will be true for your EP product.  Don’t just think you can test this in your office, or in some limited test in an election office.  You have to constantly test these systems and collect feedback from the users of these systems.  Remember, these systems will not be used by tech savvy people. They will be used primarily by older pollworkers, many of whom have limited computer skills.  Be ever mindful of this!

 If your county is thinking of purchasing an EP product you have to do your homework.  This means evaluating multiple vendors (use this web site for assistance).  Make the vendor bring in the product and show you the entire setup from start to finish.  Then you have to “kick the tires”.  Run an internal mock election and evaluate the product as a team.  For example, I noticed in the product that I used in a limited form for an election that the virtually keyboard (one that comes up on the touch screen if there is no card to swipe) contained the Windows START key.  By hitting that key, a user could browse the hard drive, the network drives and even play solitaire!!  I considered this a flaw in the system and immediately asked the vendor to correct it.  I would have thought that the vendor would have noticed this, but they hadn’t.  So don’t assume that it is bulletproof.  It is your job to make it bulletproof for your county.

Finally, do a true cost/benefit analysis.  I know that EPs eliminate the need for staff to barcode scan the pollbooks, but you are paying them and they are still working in your office.  So if you do go this route, be sure you have other duties that you can assign.  Don’t just let your people sit there for those days when that scanning used to go on.  That isn’t a proper use of technology.  You need to do the math and make sure this is a wise investment for your office.  Remember, you will also have to dedicate staff to maintaining and testing these devices.  

Some other upcoming products and trends include expert systems for pollworkers.  These would be products that allow pollworkers to get information and make decisions about what to do in certain situations (for example, a voter doesn’t have ID).  Such systems are coming on the market, and I will cover these more fully in later articles.