Plans under way to expand usage

By Sara L. Smith
VIEW Staff Writer

GRAND BLANC TWP. — The electronic poll book concept came before township voters earlier this month, ushering in a new era of technological sophistication and unseen before ease and simplicity with it.

The new concept, currently a pilot program offered through Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land’s office on a voluntary basis only, hit township polls for the first time at one of the township’s 15 precincts for the Aug. 5 primary election. Grand Blanc Township is the first and only municipality in Genesee County to have volunteered for the program, so far.

“It was very exciting,” said Clerk Linda Kingston. “It went over very well, it went great, and I’m anticipating doing it again in November.”

Although the new concept — which allows the clerk’s department to save voter and polling information onto a flash drive, preserving the information on the USB memory stick, which then is placed into Kingston’s computer in the clerk’s office, offering an instantaneous download of all pertinent voter information within a matter of seconds — only was utilized at one polling site, McGrath Elementary School, during the primary, it is expected to be used on a widespread basis once the Nov. 4 election arrives, Kingston indicated.

During election night, a laptop computer was required to download the information, which later was deleted off the laptop and put onto a memory stick.

In order to pull this off at all 15 designated polling locations come November, Kingston will require the temporary use of as many laptops, likely to be borrowed from the Grand Blanc school district. She said that she hopes the district will come to the township’s assistance and allow her to borrow the laptops for one night only, especially since school is not in session on Election Day and that all relevant voter information is deleted almost immediately from the computer’s hard drive.

She plans to launch the program fully in November, but said that she needs the schools to come through with offering several laptops for usage on the day of the election, otherwise she would be forced to purchase them for the election, which would cost a large sum that the township can’t afford to spend.

With the technology, poll workers simply scanned the barcode located on the reverse side of the voter’s driver’s license, allowing for the immediate download of name and address changes, alterations to polling site locations and other associated paperwork updates.

This new technology, though used in only one polling location, allowed for some much-required efficiency at the polls, said Kingston.

“We didn’t have any problems at the polls,” she said. “It was so neat to utilize this technology- no sooner did I click import than the entire voter history was downloaded before I actually took my hand off the mouse.”

Kingston says that the reaction to the new concept was quite positive among election workers.

“The poll workers were all very excited to use this technology. I didn’t expect that kind of reaction,” she said. “I got positive reports everywhere from my election workers. They could see the efficiency.
They were all clamoring to use it.”

Even Grand Blanc Township Trustee Roger Swaim gave the new technology a whirl while volunteering at the polls. He indicated that he liked the concept during the township’s regular board meeting on Aug. 14. Kingston says that while he was initially a bit apprehensive to try out the electronic concept, he seemed to warm up pretty quickly to the technology.

Additional training for election workers on how to use the electronic poll book format is scheduled at 10 a.m. Oct. 29 at Grand Blanc Township Hall.

Kingston mentioned that it’s difficult to accurately gauge precisely how efficient the new electronic poll book concept is since traditional paper ballots were also generated at the polls, since the concept is considered a voluntary pilot program and isn’t currently mandated by the state.

There are currently 26,386 registered voters in the township. Of that number, approximately 3,000 cast ballots at the polls, with an additional 1,982 residents voting absentee in the Aug. 5 primary.

Kingston says that of that figure, only three people voted via affidavit instead of furnishing their photo identification at the polls.

Voter turnout of about 80 percent is expected at the polls for the Nov. 4 election.

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