HOW WE SEE IT: Paper Trail For Voting A Relief

Posted: November 27, 2009 at 3:37 a.m.

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SPRINGDALE — We don’t have anything against electronic voting. The electronic voting machine is an advancement of modern technology that should be embraced. Benton County needs more of these machines.

At the same time, we are relieved to hear county election officials assure us that yes, there will be paper ballots available to voters in 2010.

Benton County Election Commission Chairman Bill Williams had said last week that the commission hoped to go paperless by 2012, making exceptions only for provisional and absentee ballots. BentonCounty conceivably could go paperless for the 2010 elections if the Quorum Court grants the commission’s request for 200 additional electronic voting machines.

But at Monday’s election commission meeting, board member Tim Hutchinson said, “There is no intent to deprive people of their right to vote with a paper ballot.”

Thank goodness. Another mid-term election will be upon us in less than a year, and Arkansas will be deciding what is shaping up to be a bruising U.S. Senate race - one with implications for the balance of power in Washington. The nation will be watching Arkansas.

In addition, there could be a governor’s race, and locally there will be races for important offices such as sheriff and county judge.

In other words, 2010 isn’t exactly the best time to be experimenting with an all-electronic election. We realize that that could save Benton County a bundle in printing costs, but at what cost?

Memories of the November 2006 election are still painfully fresh in our minds. Benton County suffered numerous foul-ups that were blamed on election workers failing to grasp the new voting technology. Four vote counts yielded four different results, leading many to question the integrity of the process.

The 2008 presidential election, which featured both electronic and paper ballots, went considerably better.

Still, there are those who feel uneasy trusting their vote to a machine. As convenient and slick as those voting machines can be, the tangibility of the paper ballot is reassuring to many people.

Next year’s election can be used to further test the popularity of voting machines with the voters. In the meantime, election commission officials are wise to keep good old-fashioned paper ballots on standby.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 11/27/2009

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