Punch-Card Voting System Under Fire Kootenai County Clerk Likes Optical Scanning, Says It’S More Accurate; Spokane County Auditor Wants To Switch

The Democratic candidate for a seat in the Idaho Legislature lost by 15 votes and demanded a recount.

Attorneys for both candidates, along with state elections officials, were on hand to scrutinize the process as thousands of votes were counted again.

The results came out precisely the same - state Rep. Don Pischner, R-Coeur d’Alene, had defeated Gino White for House seat B in District 4.

“We were sweating,” said Deedie Beard, Kootenai County elections supervisor. “I mean, you pray that it comes out the same.”

Votes also had to be recounted in parts of Shoshone and Benewah counties in the sprawling legislative district.

That was in 1994, one of the last years when Kootenai County used a computerized punch-card voting system.

Now the county counts ballots using an optical scanner, which Clerk Dan English says is more accurate. Voters fill in ovals with pencils; then the ballots are scanned by a machine that rapidly reads both sides at once.

“It combines the benefit of the old-fashioned paper ballot, where what you see is what you get, with the benefit of being electronically tabulated,” English said.

The choice of elections equipment is taking on national significance as presidential votes are being counted and recounted in Florida. The punch-card ballots used in Palm Beach County are so notorious that a sample one was sold on eBay for $127.50.

“I can tell you right now, those people in Florida - I mean that one county - I feel so bad for them,” Beard said of Florida’s elections workers. “At least we weren’t on TV with those big bad people breathing down our necks.”

English said he’s eager to see the results from the Florida recount. “It’s an unparalleled test of elections equipment,” he said, adding, “The large discrepancies are in the counties with punch-card systems.”

Yet, punch-card systems still are widely used. Of Idaho’s 44 counties, 14 - including Ada, the state’s largest - use the punch-card system. Fourteen other counties use the optical scanning system, as Kootenai County does. And 16 use hand-counted paper ballots.

In Washington, Spokane is the largest of the 13 counties that still use punch-card ballots. The other 26 counties use ballots read by an optical scanner.

Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton is asking county commissioners for $300,000 next year to switch Spokane’s balloting to an optical scanner system.

English said punch cards require more “upfront” work. Elections workers must remove the “hanging chads” - pieces of the ballot that were not punched out completely. Those small bits of paper can clog up the system as the ballots are being counted.

The optical scanning system is more expensive, but it’s worth it, said former Kootenai County Clerk Tom Taggart, who pushed for the change from punch-card balloting.

“All it takes is one situation where it doesn’t work,” he said. “It’s hard to put a price tag on voter confidence in the system.”