Over the past several years, at least three major changes have come about in how we cast our ballots in elections. The first change that I would note is the arrival of electronic voting machines. The Ivotronic voting machines are what we have seen in use in Benton County. The second big change is the legislative initiation of early voting in Arkansas. In practice, this innovation has been implemented in several strategic locations around the county, providing opportunities during the two weeks prior to the regular election for voters to cast an early ballot. Although paper ballots may be available on request, the electronic voting machines have become the nearly universal provision for submitting a voter's choices during early voting.
The third big change is appearing just this year, and voters will have experienced this change just recently. At first I thought I would be writing this column early enough for it to come out before the March 1 Primary Election, but then I realized a bit late that it would actually come out a day after the election. This newest change is the transition from the old precinct-based plan to a new voting center plan, accompanied by a change from the older book-oriented verification of voter registration to the verifying of voters' registration using an online computer network. The computer network connects to the County Clerk's office, accessing up-to-the-minute voter registration information and providing nearly instantaneous updates and corrections.
As I have observed the use of electronic voting machines, voters for the most part have been generally very receptive to their use. Most voters have viewed the Ivotronics, or some similar electronic voting machine, as the wave of the future, and have readily adapted to voting by means of the machines. Some voters seem to have become quite pleased that they have been able to learn and efficiently use the voting machines. Although some are not all that excited about using electronic computers, with their touch screen controls and multi-color displays, most have adapted quite well to this method of registering their votes. There have been, nevertheless, certain downsides to the electronic voting machines. First, their introduction was very cautiously and minimally done. At Pea Ridge, when we first introduced voting by machine, we had only one unit on hand in our precinct. This meant that a few venturesome voters were able to try out the new way of doing things, but most of our voters had to continue using paper ballots. A second downside to the electronic units is that they occasionally malfunction, becoming unusable for a lengthy period during a busy election. These malfunctions do not endanger the citizen's voting information, since the machines have multiple backup systems to protect and preserve the data, but the ailing machine is unavailable to voters, and time is lost.
As the years passed, the County Election Commission obtained more electronic voting machines, and our Pea Ridge precinct gradually was provided more machines for our local elections. But the number of machines supplied has always fallen short of the number really needed to serve our voters. Always our voters have fallen back on paper ballots, not for any reluctance to use the voting machines, but because the waiting lines at the machines grew long, and the waiting times to use the machines became grievous. At times, members of the Commission seemed to presume that the machines could handle the full work load if only voters were pushed a little harder to use them; but finally the serious congestion and excessively long lines at the machines during major elections convinced Commission members that the current number of available voting machines could not provide the capacity needed for large voter turnouts. Providing the number of additional voting machines for sufficient capacity presented a cost challenge. Additionally, the current machines were aging, and the county leaders were reluctant to continue investing in the older units.
The new voting center plan, in combination with early voting, is designed to increase efficiency and make better use of the available voting machines, whatever type of machine may be brought into use in the future. Early voting is highly encouraged. Early voting greatly lessens pressure on the voting centers on election days. Also, voters will now no longer have to vote only in their "home" precincts. Being sent to another precinct should now be a thing of the past. Even the precinct-based voting centers can accommodate voters from other precincts when needed. For the present, Pea Ridge will continue to have voting centers for Precinct 33 (First Baptist Church) and Precinct 58 (Church of Christ). Whether we will eventually have an early voting station in Pea Ridge remains to be seen. The voting centers' new electronic "books" will provide strong new security to prevent any effort on the part of a rogue voter to vote more than once. Voters who still want to use paper ballots may be a bit disappointed with the new plan, because, to use a paper ballot, the voter must go to the County Clerk's office to obtain and cast the ballot.
Voting methods can be modified in various ways to make voting convenient and secure, but our democracy, in order to function well still relies on voter commitment and on the motivation of voters to become informed participants in the work of electing our public leaders. We, the people, are given a tremendous privilege and responsibility to choose our leadership in our state and nation. We should not neglect it. My hope is that we as a people can mature beyond today's divisiveness and "our way or no way" attitudes, and beyond today's negativity regarding government and politicians, and remember that we the voters are the base for making our democracy work, a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
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Editor's note: Jerry Nichols may be contacted by email at [email protected] or by phone at 479-621-1621.
Editorial on 03/09/2016