Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Early voting begins next week

County says new ballot scanners will provide prompt results


By GREG MOORE
Express Staff Writer

    Early voting for this fall’s general election in Blaine County will be held from Oct. 14-31 at the old courthouse building in Hailey. Hours will be Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., beginning the day after the Columbus Day holiday.
    County Clerk JoLynn Drage said she has been assured that the courthouse, which is undergoing a roof replacement, will be open for voting by that date.
    The Blaine County Elections Office has been mailing absentee ballots since Sept. 19. An application form is available on the county’s website. Click on “County departments,” then “Elections.”
    Anyone who has lived in Blaine County for at least 30 days is eligible to vote. Registration is permanent as long as a voter casts a ballot at least once every four years in a primary or general election. Anyone who changes his or her address or name needs to re-register. Voters may register at the polls on Election Day by providing proof of residence and a photo identification.
    In 2008, the county switched from punch-card ballots to paper ballots counted by an optical scanner. During the last primary election on May 20, the scanner jammed and then stopped counting ballots. The remaining ballots were counted at the Twin Falls County Elections Department, but the malfunction caused a delay in determining election results.
    This summer, the county obtained new ballot scanners that will be installed at each polling place. Previously, ballots from each precinct were taken to the county courthouse for scanning.
    “Having tabulators in each precinct will give Blaine County the ability to release election results hours earlier than before,” Drage said. “This reduces the amount of work required on election night for the benefit of both the county and the public. Candidates will now receive results shortly after polls are closed.”
    Drage said the DS200 ballot scanners and vote tabulators from Election Systems & Software cost a total of $95,000 including trade-in of the old scanners.
    For voters, the DS200 makes casting a ballot a breeze, Drage said. A voter inserts a paper ballot in any direction into the DS200, and the device quickly scans both sides of each ballot and confirms that the vote has been counted. Drage said several layers of system security ensure the privacy of each voter. She said the scanning process is simple and will not increase waiting times for voters.
    The county Elections Office will hold a demonstration of the how the scanners work at an as-yet-to-be-determined date before Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 4. In addition to the demonstration, the Clerk’s Office will have a DS200 unit available during office hours for anyone who wants to learn more about the system.




About Comments

Comments with content that seeks to incite or inflame may be removed.

Comments that are in ALL CAPS may be removed.

Comments that are off-topic or that include profanity or personal attacks, libelous or other inappropriate material may be removed from the site. Entries that are unsigned or contain signatures by someone other than the actual author may be removed. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or any other policies governing this site. Use of this system denotes full acceptance of these conditions. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

The comments below are from the readers of mtexpress.com and in no way represent the views of Express Publishing, Inc.

You may flag individual comments. You may also report an inappropriate or offensive comment by clicking here.

Flagging Comments: Flagging a comment tells a site administrator that a comment is inappropriate. You can find the flag option by pointing the mouse over the comment and clicking the 'Flag' link.

Flagging a comment is only counted once per person, and you won't need to do it multiple times.

Proper Flagging Guidelines: Every site has a different commenting policy - be sure to review the policy for this site before flagging comments. In general these types of comments should be flagged:

  • Spam
  • Ones violating this site's commenting policy
  • Clearly unrelated
  • Personal attacks on others
Comments should not be flagged for:
  • Disagreeing with the content
  • Being in a dispute with the commenter

Popular Comment Threads



 Local Weather 
Search archives:


Copyright © 2024 Express Publishing Inc.   Terms of Use   Privacy Policy
All Rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Express Publishing Inc. is prohibited. 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.