Hall County vote makes history

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. — Hall County poll workers and Northwest school district voters in Hall County made history during Tuesday's bond issue election.

They were the first in Nebraska to use electronic poll books.

Hall County Election Commissioner Dale Baker said voters could choose to have a bar code on the back of their driver's license read to verify their name and their address, which in turn showed whether they were a registered voter in the Northwest school district. Alternatively, voters could give poll workers their names, with election workers typing in the name, and pulling up a person's address to show that he or she was a registered voter in the Northwest district.

Once they had shown they were a registered voter, a person would then sign their name using an electronic pad.

Baker said she is interested in using an electronic poll book at a satellite voting location for next May's primary. The satellite voting location would be used for early voting or absentee voting.

In satellite voting, poll workers again would get a person's name and address using the electronic poll book, Baker said. That information would then be used to print out the right ballot for that person, including such individualized information as the candidates for that voter's city council ward, the voter's school board ward and the voter's legislative district.

Baker said the voter registration information would be recorded in real time at the Hall County election commissioner's office. As a result, the system would prevent attempts by a person to vote twice.

Baker said an electronic poll book and a satellite voting system would be used only during the early voting period for primary and general elections. She said the system is too expensive to use at all 39 precincts in Hall County.

While the electronic poll book system can be used to print out the proper ballot regardless of where a person lives in Hall County, all ballots used on Tuesday had already been printed. Baker said two electronic poll books were used at Northwest High School. She said regular paper-and-pen poll books were used in Howard and Merrick counties.

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