The Greenwood Voters League got a look Wednesday at a new touch-screen machine designed to simplify the voting process and eliminate errors.
Athan Gibbs Sr. of Nashville, the creator of the TruVote system, spoke to the league. He was unable to stage a demonstration of the machine but said he would do so at next Wednesday's Voters League meeting.
State Sen. David Jordan, the league's president, said he met Gibbs and saw a machine at the National Conference of State Legislators in San Antonio.
Gibbs, an auditor and minister, said he was distressed to wake up the day after last year's elections and hear that no president had been chosen. The current voting system is too "trusting" and leaves open too many opportunities for error and abuse, he said.
"I couldn't believe we had a voting system that was unauditable," he said. "That was very troubling to me."
So he and others began developing a touch-screen system that prints out a receipt for each voter.
"When you buy a suit or a pack of gum or anything else, you get a receipt," Gibbs said.
With his system, the voter can see a candidate's name, picture and party and may select the candidate by touching the picture. There also is an opportunity to change the selection if needed.
TruVote has been used in some school elections but no large-scale races.
The system eliminates over-voting, because once a vote is recorded with a voter's ID number, any vote later recorded with that ID number will not count.
It also guards against a voter accidentally skipping a race. If a race is left blank, it will say "no vote."
Each receipt also gives a validation number the voter can use later to make sure the vote counted. The voter will be able to verify this through the Internet or a toll-free phone number.
Voters' validation numbers also will be recorded in books and supplied to newspapers for publication. If a voter's number is not in the book but the person has a receipt, he or she may go to the circuit clerk and ask to vote again.
The receipts protect confidentiality by not naming the candidates selected.
The machines will be networked so that candidates may look at any terminal to see who has won a race, Gibbs said.
After the elections, the results will be burned onto two CD-ROMs, with one going to the county's circuit clerk and the other going to the state.
The machines, now in their fourth prototype, cost $2,800 to $3,000 apiece, and Gibbs said he expected the federal government to contribute matching funds. He also suggested that the government add a new line to state and federal tax forms asking for $3 contributions that could go into a fund for the machines.
Circuit Clerk Trey Evans said the TruVote system sounded interesting but added that it would have to be used in a real election and sell itself. He also said he wanted to see it operate before comparing it to other options.
Evans also questioned the practicality of counting on federal money to bankroll a product. The county can't commit to spending a large amount of money and then find that the federal funds are still up in the air, he said.
A number of vendors offer similar touch-screen products, and more are likely to emerge because of the problems with the 2000 results, Evans said.
Still, he said, many voters are skeptical about new technology. A touch-screen looks easy, but they might question whether their votes are being recorded or who is programming the device.
The machines now used by the county are antiquated, but they also are difficult to tamper with, the clerk said.
"We need something, but right now everyone is comfortable with what we have," he said.
He also said he wonders what would happen to the votes if lightning knocked out the backup hard drives, because TruVote doesn't leave a paper trail.
Robert Moore, president of the Leflore County Board of Supervisors, asked Gibbs how voters would know the votes were being counted.
Gibbs said they will contain counters, visible to the public, tabulating the number of votes cast. Poll workers also will be able to look at the machine at the beginning of the day to ensure that it is set at zero.
There also is a sampling mechanism to ensure that the votes are going to the right candidates. Gibbs said a certain percentage of the voters - possibly one out of 20 - will be asked to volunteer for the sample. Their receipts will include the names of the candidates they chose as well as the other information.
