Published: July 10, 2009 11:53 pm      

Voting ID system passes first hurdle

CHARLESTON — A system of electronic voter identification that earned plaudits in a test run will be studied further before election officials introduce it widely across West Virginia, the secretary of state’s office said Friday.

The town of Mason was the first in the state to use so-called electronic poll books for its municipal election last month. The election was a trial run for software officials hope will streamline the voting process and reduce the risk of fraud.

Loaded onto a laptop, the electronic poll book is designed to help poll workers identify voters much quicker than they can with huge paper records with columns of tiny print.

In addition, the electronic poll books can be updated automatically to prevent people from voting more than once and even provide directions for voters at the wrong precinct.

The trial run went well, according to Brooke Pauley, who served as Mason town recorder until July 1.

“I can imagine that in larger elections especially it would save a lot of time,” she said.

There was some training required, but Pauley said the software was easily used even by older poll workers less familiar with computers.

“If you can send an e-mail, you can use this,” she said.

The software, which came from Matthews, N.C.-based Decision Support, was used alongside the traditional paper poll books, so the results could be compared after the votes were tallied.

The state is not rushing to get electronic poll books in every precinct, though. A more thorough study of the software, including the cost for rolling it out across West Virginia, has to be done first, according to the office of Secretary of State Natalie Tennant.

“We need to do a cost-benefit analysis, and we think the Legislature’s going to take it up and look at it,” Tennant spokesman Jake Glance said.

Electronic poll books aren’t widespread nationally, but a growing number of election officials are beginning to seriously consider them, according to Lawrence Norden, senior counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.

“There’s a lot of potential for improvements in election administration in using them,” he said.

But election officials looking to the software as a complete replacement for the expense and effort of paper books should think twice, Norden said.

In 2006, problems with electronic poll books in Denver stranded voters in line for hours at precincts, Norden said.

“If the proper paper backups are not in place, then you potentially have a disaster on your hands,” he said.