NEW VOTING MACHINE CHANGES THE WAY WE CAST OUR BALLOTS
For those of you that sat out Tuesday’s primary, you missed an important event. It wasn’t the results of the election that were surprising, but the method of casting your ballot. For the first time in decades, the voting machines were changed thus signaling a new age for Monmouth County voting.
While turnout was once again disappointing, only 23,755 voters out of 400,259, those that did vote were impressed with the new system. This voter didn’t really think that an overhaul was needed; however, the new machines do bring us into the electronic age. The secret ballot privilege remains with a curtain, but no longer does the curtain close automatically behind you. Instead of pulling the lever, the voting machine presents a touch pad very similar to making an ATM withdrawal.
Overall, it is a minor tweak to the system, and the main advantage of the voting machines can be at the close of voting. At that time, a paper record will spit out the results of the election and the tabulations are automatically sent to Freehold. Additionally, the clerk’s office will post election results on-line (Although I doubt they will beat our editor who always beats the print papers with results.)
One thing that will not change is the watchful eye of election officials. All county poll officials have been trained on the operations of the new machines and voters must still sign their names before receiving a ballot ticket. Overall, it was a smooth transition into the electronic voting age, but the real test will come in November, when hopefully, more than 5.9% of Monmouth County voters will care to visit the polls.
