November 15, 2000
New Voting Machines Work Well For Cabell County
By Jessica Dunphy, HNN Reporter
T. Michael Murdock contributed to this story.
The new voting machines implemented by Mayor Dean and the Cabell County Commission proved to be efficient and easy for the voters of Cabell County.
Although the transition from the old to the new was smoother than expected, there were still complaints.
Not about the machines themselves, but the pollsters operating them.
Discounting rumors that voters were pressured to vote a straight ticket, Ben Bagby, Cabell County Clerk, reported that there was only one instance in which a voter reported being asked whether or not she was going to vote a straight ticket. The instance involved an 88-year-old pollster, who, according to Bagby, “had no business being a pollster anyway.”
Bagby went on to say that the County Clerk’s Office has nothing to do with who the pollsters are.
Pollsters are appointed by the Democratic and Republican Committees, and the County Clerk only fills vacancies.
When asked how the pollsters were instructed on how to show the voters how to use the new machines, Bagby said they were to “only demonstrate how to write-in if asked” and “explain how to vote straight-ticket if the voter desired to do it”.
When asked whether or not the Mayor Dean would contest, Bagby said, “Why? She lost and it wasn’t close. The straight-ticket voting didn’t help her, but other Republican’s won; Wolfe, Pancake, Bush, and Underwood even won Cabell County.”
Bagby also said that he had no complaints from poll workers this year.
“As a matter of fact,” Bagby said. “I’ve gotten letters from poll workers telling me that the Votronic system is exceptional.”
According to Bagby, the County Clerk’s Office had trained workers visiting all of the polling places all day long on Election Day.
“We had very few calls for problems,” Bagby said. “We had trained people in the field, visiting polling places periodically, and we had three people from Election Systems (the Company the County bought the system from) there to help us too.”
The Votronic Voting System seemed to be a success, and Bagby thinks it will continue to get better.
“I think now that people have used them they will vote faster,” Bagby said. “They will be more familiar with the system.”
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Jessica Dunphy, HNN Reporter