Come to the elections office open house today
When St. Johns County Supervisor of Elections Penny Halyburton started working in the elections office, she recalls using a Bates manual numbering machine to stamp sequential registration numbers by hand.
Today, Halyburton is holding an open house until 3:00 p.m. at her office located at 4455 Avenue A, Suite 101 where she has displayed a collection of historical voting equipment dating back to the late 1920’s – early 1930’s — records and materials spared from the courthouse fire.
In addition, her staff is on hand to demonstrate and preview St. Johns County’s new DS200 voting equipment. The electronic voting machines proofread ballots for common errors in order to cut down on under-votes and over-votes; common causes of ballot disqualification. The voter will now have the option to correct their ballot if they feel that they made a mistake.
New equipment will replace the manual sign-in process when you go to the polls starting with the August 24th Primary Election this year.
You will swipe your driver’s license or state issued ID card, verify your address for an election official and sign-in on an electronic signature pad.
Then you will be presented with a paper ballot; custom printed with the races in which you are qualified to vote.
Your secret ballot will be completed by filling in the ovals to the left of your candidate or proposition of your choice.
You will place your ballot into the DS200 machine and, if you mark more than one choice in a race or inadvertently forget to vote on an issue, detect the potential error giving you the opportunity to correct your ballot.
New voters can register to vote at the open house and the Supervisor’s Office suggests that it’s also a great time to update your current registration for name, signature, and address or to request an absentee ballot.
Photo credits: © 2010 Historic City News staff photographer
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