Election Board Restores Paper Trail to Early Voting

In a unanimous decision on Tuesday, the Monroe County Board of Elections restored paper ballots (officially called ballot cards that are used in optical scanners) to early voting in Monroe County. I would like to think that the hundreds of signatures that we gathered in favor of a paper trail were the deciding factors, but I think it was a foregone conclusion. Perhaps they realized that the decision to use the Microvote Infinity Machines exclusively in last May's Primary Election was an unpopular decision. It doesn't matter. What matters is that, for now, voters who vote early can be confident that their votes will be counted properly.

Our work, however, is not done yet. The Board's decision is effective for only this coming election. Next year they could return to the Infinity machines for early voting. Furthermore, the Clerk's office intends to purchase ten to twenty more voting machines. What kind of machines those will be will be up to the County Commissioners. This means that we need now to talk to the Commissioners and the County Council members and convince them that those new machines should be optical scan machines.