Newton County voters will head to the polls next Tuesday to cast their votes in numerous races for county and state positions. Before they go, however, there are a few things to know.
For the first time in 15 years, Newton County voters will not use electronic machines to cast their votes. Instead, they will fill out paper ballots, which will be counted by the voting machines.
Circuit Clerk Mike Butler said the new machines will be able to provide both an electronic tally of votes, via an encrypted thumb drive, and the paper ballots, which are deposited into a locked box inside the machine until polls close.
“Paper trails now is a big thing,” he said. “The integrity of the election process has changed a lot in the past few years. The people’s trust in the election process has changed. Things are almost reverting back to paper ballots; however, we’re still going to have the electronic side of it.”
When voters arrive at their designated polling place, Butler said, they will show their government issued identification, such as a driver’s license, passport or voter identification card.
“Basically, what will happen, you’ll go to the polling place like you normally would. You would go to the table, you’ll present your identification, you’ll sign the poll book and you’ll receive a ballot,” he said.
With so many races up for grabs in this year’s election, Butler said the ballots will most likely have a front and a back.
“Don’t forget to check the back,” he said.
Once voters have a ballot, they’ll take it to a privacy screen, where they can mark their votes. On the ballots, each candidate’s name has a bubble next to it. Voters will need to fill in the bubble next to the name of the candidates they wish to vote for.
District 1 Election Commissioner Nancy Kidd Smith said voters should make sure the entire bubble is filled in before taking their ballot to the voting machines.
After filling in the bubbles, voters will then take their ballot to the voting machines, which scan the paper and record voters’ choices. Once a ballot is scanned, Butler said, the machine will display a “Ballot scanned successfully” message, and the vote will have been cast.
With all new technology, however, issues do come up. The new voting machines, Butler said, will alert voters if they accidentally voted for more than one candidate in each race or forgot a race. When that happens, he said, the machine will give voters the option to return the ballot or ignore the error and continue.
If they chose to continue, he said, the race where the error was made will not be counted.
As with all elections, Butler said poll workers will be stationed at each polling location, ready to assist with any issues that might come up. Should voters have questions, he said they would be happy to help in any way they can.
