Newport to be test site for electronic voting machines

June Casagrande

Community members who show up before the City Council meeting on

Tuesday will be among the first people in the county who get to try

out new electronic voting machines.

The Orange County Registrar of Voters will hold a mock election on

Tuesday at a nine locations throughout the county, including Newport

Beach City Hall. The registrar chose a number of cities that hold

council meetings on Tuesday in hopes of getting as many people as

possible to test-drive the new machines before they are put in use

for real in the primary election in March.

“It’s basically a dry run for us,” said Brett Rowley, a spokesman

for the registrar’s office.

The registrar coordinated the mock balloting in part as a sort of

dress rehearsal for election officials whose job it is to set up and

later dismantle polling places. The process will be timed by county

officials, who will also keep track of any problems with the system.

Members of the public are invited to come participate in the mock

election. The ballot will include four fictional races and two

fictional ballot initiatives. The questions will clearly be about

fictional issues, to avoid confusion about whether the votes are

real. They’re not. But they will be tallied by election officials as

part of their dry run.

The new electronic voting machine is called an eSlate. It looks

like an electronic clipboard with a dial for navigating the screen

and a button to cast ballots. The new equipment will replace paper

ballots in future elections in Orange County.

“It’s just a chance for people to try out the new electronic

voting equipment,” Newport Beach City Clerk LaVonne Harkless said.

Election officials also hope to have a voting machine set up in

the city clerk’s office prior to the March election to allow people

to practice on the machines and become familiar with them, Harkless

said.