CARTHAGE, Mo. —
Jasper County elections will be going partially high-tech, starting with the Aug. 7 primary election.
Bonnie Earl, county clerk, said the office has ordered iPads that, among other things, will hold voter information used by election judges at each of the county’s nearly 50 polling places.
She said data loaded into the notebook computers made by Apple Inc. will provide information on whether the voter is at the right polling place and what ballot they should receive. Instead of a paper polling book, the voter also will sign in on the device, she said.
“There will be 37 different ballots in the county in August, mainly because of legislative redistricting,” Earl said.
She said she expects using the devices will reduce waiting by voters because election judges will not have to look up voters’ names in polling books.
“I think this will just eliminate any concern about voter fraud, because the iPad will take a picture of a voter’s information, and it will bring it up automatically, so things will go much faster,” she said.
Identifying information accessible to the clerk’s office is on new voter identification cards and newer Missouri driver’s licenses. Otherwise, the voter’s name will be typed into the device to bring up identifying information.
It will also speed up the election work because judges, in most cases, will have information on all voters in the county. So if a voter has come to an incorrect polling place, an election judge can redirect them without having to call the county clerk’s office to find out where they are supposed to vote.
Earl said she plans to purchase up to 100 of the devices, at a cost of just over $112,000, including licensing and software. She said costs will be covered by a $40,000 state grant and $65,000 that she has saved in her election budget.
The county expects to take delivery of the new devices in mid-July and Earl said training with election judges will begin soon afterward. Eventually, she said, she expect use of the iPads will allow her to reduce the number of judges used in each of the county’s polling places.
Deadlines
Absentee voting for the Aug. 7 primary election opened on Tuesday. The last day for voters to register for the election is July 11.
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