Elections and voting in Boundary County will take a technological leap forward this year.

Two months from today is the Idaho Presidential Primary election, scheduled for March 8.  Boundary County voters on that day will find there has been a substantial change in how they cast their ballots.

Up until now, ballots in Boundary County were counted by humans, and by hand.  Four or five poll workers staffed the vote counting rooms.  One worker would read each ballot aloud, one at a time, while a second worker observed closely as a witness to make sure the ballot was read correctly.  Two or three other poll workers would tally votes as the ballots were read.  After every 25 ballots, they would stop, and the workers tallying the votes would compare and balance their counts to ensure all were recording the same totals.  Poll workers in the counting rooms were not allowed to leave the room until all votes were counted.

This system led to some long nights for poll workers and for county officials in charge of elections.  "In years past, we have been in the office till 4:00 a.m. waiting for results from polls," said Glenda Poston, Boundary County Clerk/Auditor/Recorder.

New System makes things easier

That shouldn't happen this next election.  Boundary County now has seven brand new electronic vote scanner/tabulator machines, and officials plan to deploy those machines for the first time in the next election, which is the March 8 Presidential Primary.

So how will counting votes now happen, in 2016 and beyond, with these new machines?  Here is the new scenario:  You travel to your usual polling location, and check in and verify that you are a registered voter, just like in the past.  You receive your ballot from the friendly election workers, proceed to the voting booth, and mark your ballot, all just like in the past.  Once your ballot is marked, that's where things change.

Once your ballot is marked, you place it in a "secrecy sleeve" (if you wish), step over to the county's new electronic scanner/tabulator, and insert your ballot into the machine.  The electronic scanner/tabulator will thank you for voting, and an election official confirms that you have voted.

The counting magic starts once the polls close for the day at 8:00 p.m.  At that time, workers will run reports from the tabulators, will post results on the doors of the precinct polling sites, and the County Clerk's office will be notified of the precincts' results.  Final county-wide totals will be tallied by staff at the County Clerk's office, and all the vote counting is completed that quick.  Ms. Poston is hoping to receive reports from individual precincts at her office at the Courthouse within half an hour after the polls close, by 8:30 p.m., with final results calculated and posted by 9:30 or 10:00 p.m.  Much better than 4:00 a.m.

The ballots used with these new machines will look a little different.  Perhaps one of the main differences is that instead of the voter marking a box next to a candidate's name or a next to a question, as done with previous ballots, voters will now have an oval to fill in.  These ovals are what the electronic scanner reads.

Details on the new electronic machines

The new electronic machines are DS 200 Precinct Tabulation Scanners, which the county purchased last October from ES&S Elections Systems and Software of Omaha, Nebraska. 

Ms. Poston says she has seen these tabulators at several conferences over the years, and discussions have been held from time to time about possibly getting some for use here in Boundary County.  "We have talked off and on about this type of tabulator.  Counties smaller than ours and larger than ours have used this tabulator for several years, and have nothing but positive comments regarding its use and reliability."

Acquiring the new machines

In March 2015, a representative from ES&S Elections Systems and Software traveled to Boundary County to demonstrate the machine for the County Clerk's office and other election officials.  Following this demonstration, "We received nothing but positive comments," said Ms. Poston. "So we started to proceed with purchase arrangements."

The seven machines purchased, one for each of Boundary County's voting precincts, cost a total of $51,516.67.  Although the county made the original payment to procure the machines, the purchase price was fully reimbursed 100% about a week afterward by the Idaho Secretary of State office.  The state funds used to reimburse Boundary County came from Idaho's Election Consolidation Fund, which is a reimbursement program established by the Idaho Legislature to pay for county expenses to implement the 2009 Election Consolidation laws.

The new Election Consolidation laws of 2009 brought significant changes to elections in Idaho, among other things putting the County Clerks in charge of running elections for all government entities within a county (with just a few exceptions), and providing funds from the state to provide for the counties to implement Consolidation, including the purchase of voting equipment.

Election officials will be ready

Now that Boundary County has these machines, and the election staff has had all the necessary instruction and training, election officials plan a test run in the days just prior to the real March 8 Presidential Primary election.  In addition, staff from ES&S Elections Systems will be onsite, ready to provide technical support or to troubleshoot as may be necessary.

Ms. Poston notes that these machines will likely not be used for elections that historically have a low turnout, or that involve simple Yes/No questions for voters, such as municipal elections or school district voting.  Those elections will probably be run with the traditional paper ballots.

So, hopefully, no more late, late night and early hours of the morning vote tabulations for Boundary County's election officials and poll workers.  Ms. Poston has an observation on that, also:  "I would like to compliment our poll workers.  They are dedicated to their job, and they do a wonderful job.  But it is hard to find poll workers and then expect them to be onsite for 15 to 17  hours.  Our goal is to improve this process, to get the results out earlier, and to relieve some of the hours needed to be a poll worker."

Modernizing Boundary County's voting system with these newly acquired machines should go a long way toward accomplishing those goals.