Take time to learn how to use county’s new voting machines

Franklin County voters have ample opportunity to get familiar with new electronic voting machines to debut in the May 7 primary.

To its credit, the Board of Elections has fashioned a robust voter education program, with tutorials scheduled at civic associations, city and township halls, libraries and festivals across the county.

Voters also can get personalized instruction by visiting election headquarters, 1700 Morse Rd., Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Most people will find the new machines easy to use. But when it comes to casting ballots, there’s never a shortage of questions about reliability and security, especially whenever a new voting system is introduced.

After casting paper ballots for more than a century, Americans in the late 1800s began learning about mechanical voting equipment.

Jacob H. Myers, a safe maker from Rochester, N.Y., pioneered a mechanical vote tabulator first used in 1892.

Knowing the importance of soothing fears, Myers proclaimed, “If I can keep a bank’s securities safe from thieves, I can protect mechanically the voter from rascaldom and make the process of casting the ballot perfectly plain, simple and secret.”

By the 1930s, mechanical voting equipment was standard in more than half of America’s polling locations. In 1951, Franklin County followed suit by renting 22 mechanicallever machines for a test in an April special election.

County officials over the next five years purchased 700 of the steel behemoths, each more than 800 lbs.

For four decades, Franklin County voters — with good reason — trusted the integrity of the process. When other Ohio counties opted in the 1970s for voting by punch cards, Franklin County stood by its hulking machines.

The county would have stuck by them longer, but in 1982 the manufacturer — Automated Voting Systems of Jamestown, N.Y. — went out of business. Spare parts became scarcer and county officials recognized the need for a new system.

In the June 1992 primary, Franklin County experimented with its first electronic voting machines. By November 1995, Shouptronics were being used in every precinct.

Then, as now, new elections systems were introduced in low-turnout elections. The emphasis always has been on giving voters time to adapt to new technology well in advance of high-turnout elections.

For 12 years, the firstgeneration electronic machines were used in Franklin County without incident. The second generation, produced by Election Systems & Software of Omaha, Neb., was rolled out in 2006 and lasted through 2018. Now comes the third generation.

After a quarter-century of experience, the vast majority of Franklin County voters are comfortable with electronic voting machines. They should be. Despite much noise from conspiracy theorists, there has not been a single documented case of a successful attack against an electronic voting system in Ohio.

Nevertheless, the new system — also produced by ES&S — will give voters the option of voting electronically or by paper ballot.

Most voters will make their choices on a touch screen, then receive a printed copy of their completed ballot to feed into a scanner. However, voters also can choose an oldfashioned paper ballot.

Voting in Franklin County long has been conducted with diligence and integrity. All voters, especially those most prone to doubt, should take advantage of the many opportunities to educate themselves.