Nevada lawmakers and election officials got a sneak peek at a new generation of voting machines last week as the state eyes replacing its aging ballot-counting fleet. “We’re looking at doing it for 2018,” Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske said of a possible timeline to have new machines in place. The secretary of state’s office invited two vendors certified in Nevada — Election Systems & Software and Dominion Voting — to show off their wares Wednesday in a daylong open house at the Capitol. From a technical standpoint, Nevada’s current machines, some more than 10 years old, are ancient. … Both ES&S and Dominion use touch-screen machines and scanners for tabulation. Writing on the screens can be made bigger, and the color contrasts altered. There are adaptations for braille, and headphones where the ballot can be read to voters.
… Counting absentee ballots can slow down tabulation, especially when voters indicate their choices outside the circles or use a check mark instead of filling in the bubble. It’s not uncommon for a voter to cross out one choice, make another and draw in an arrow saying “This one!”
Scanners read that as an overvote, where someone voted for more candidates than allowed. The ES&S system will kick those ballots out into a separate bin. Poll workers then inspect the ballot to determine voter intent and create a duplicate ballot to count.
The Dominion system includes software that sends a digital copy of the questionable ballot to an adjudication team to examine.
Full Article: Nevada looks at replacing aging voting machines – Las Vegas Review-Journal.