Steuben County Gets New Voting Machines
STEUBEN COUNTY, NY (WENY) -- Early voting is underway for the Presidential Primary and in Steuben County, voters can use brand new machines to cast their ballot. The Republican Commissioner of the Steuben County Board of Elections said it's been 14 years since they've gotten new ones.
"We were due to replace them. There wasn't anything wrong with the machines [it's] just technology has advanced [a lot] in the last 14 years," said Veronica Olin, the Republican Commissioner of the Steuben County B.O.E.
Olin said people the only change to this voting process is the way people cast their ballot.
"The first thing I think people need to understand is that we're required to do a lot of testing on the machines long before they're rolled out to a voting site for early voting or Election Day. We do have to do test ballots on the machines and we have to verify the results of those ballots that come off of them to make sure they did count them correctly," said Olin.
She also added, "After the election, we're required to do what is called a 3% audit. So, we have to pull the ballots for every single ballot that was cast on a certain machine and we have to count them and compare it to the tape that comes off the machine to make sure they were all counted correctly. If there's a problem, then we have to investigate and figure out what it is. If there is a problem, then we have to escalate it to a five-percent audit. We have not had to do that in Steuben County but the nice thing is we do have paper ballots if there ever appears to be a problem, then we can go back and hand count them."
With the ADA machines, they have a larger touch screen, which can help someone who has trouble filling in the bubbles. The ADA machines also have an arrow pad with braille on it and there are headphones to use so voters can have the candidates' names read aloud to them.
"At the end, before [someone] prints their ballot [on an ADA machine], it will bring up the screen of all the offices and it will show them all the candidates they voted for. If it's somebody [who is] blind, it would read to them and it would have the option to go back and change anything if they needed to. Or, they can just hit print and it'll print the ballot out for them and have it scanned into the cast machine," said Olin.
Olin said there will be one ADA-compliant voting machine at every polling site in Steuben County. She also said there will be at least one scanner machine at every voting location as well.
To cast an early vote for the Presidential Primary, you must be registered with one of the two major parties. Early voting will continue at local sites across the state until March 30th.