Rains: Election night delays will get worse

If you didn’t like the rate at which election night returns were finalized two weeks ago, then you probably won’t like what’s in store for the future.
Whitley County Clerk Tom Rains said he can remember the good old days when the county had one lever voting machine in most precincts, and election night totals were finalized by 7:30 or 8 p.m.
“I remember those days. They were good days, but that is a different time now. In the future it is going to get a whole lot worse,” Rains said about the time it takes to get election night returns finalized.
“People need to be getting themselves prepared for it in the future.”
He said one reason why returns are later being finalized is that the county now has two totally different sets of voting machines.
The older and larger ELECTronic 1242 voting machines, and the newer and smaller E-Slate voting machines.
Due to differences in the two machines, county officials have to first download results from the 1242 machines, which most people vote on, before they can down load the results from the E-Slate machines.
A grant that was part of the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) purchased the E-Slate machines so that every precinct in Whitley County has one.
Rains said the county is mandated to use the new machines, and that 90 other counties in the state are also using the same machines as Whitley County.
The E-Slate machines are designed so that disabled voters can cast their ballots without any assistance. Other people, besides disabled voters, can also use the E-Slate machines.
Once each set of totals are downloaded, a software program called Fusion, merges the results together in one report.
Whitley County had unofficial vote totals released about 9:30 p.m. on election night.
However, election officials have to certify the paper printouts, which come from each machine, rather than electronic the machine totals, Rains said.
Totals from the paper printouts were still being added up at 12:20 a.m. on election night.
Each voting precinct had one E-Slate machine, in addition to one or two 1242 voting machines.
While each machine prints out the totals in the same order for each race, the spacing is different, which election officials says slows down tabulation efforts.

Split precincts
In addition, where there is a split precinct some voting machines may have up to four different ballot “faces,” or possible combinations of races that voters could cast a ballot for.
For instance, in the College Hill precinct, some voters could cast ballots for Williamsburg school board, while other voters cast ballots in the Whitley County Board of Education race.
Some voters in that precinct can cast ballots for Williamsburg City Council, while others can’t.
Not every person, who could vote for city council, could vote in the city school board race though.
The 1242 machines merge the results of all the ballot “faces” when the totals are printed out. However, the E-Slate machines print out a separate total for each ballot “face.”
In other words, in a precinct with four ballot “faces,” the 1242 machines would print out one total for each of the two candidates in the judge-executive’s race.
On the E-Slate machines with four ballot “faces,” each candidate for judge-executive would have four different totals printed out rather than a combined total. The same would hold true for every countywide race on the ballot.
Election officials then had to add the four E-Slate totals by hand together with the totals from each 1242 machine to get a final total for each individual candidate in that precinct.
“I talked to county clerk all over the state of Kentucky, who said it was one of the worst elections they have ever had in terms of totaling their votes because they had so much different equipment to tally from,” Rains added.

Largest election in 24 years
Another thing that delayed election night totals was the fact that this was the largest election in Whitley County in 24 years.
Every 24 years, all countywide races appear on the ballot.
Circuit judges are elected to eight year terms. Circuit clerks and commonwealth attorneys have a six year term. Judge-executive, magistrates, sheriff, jailer, county clerk, and numerous other countywide officers serve four year terms.
“It comes out every 24 years that they are have elections the same time,” Rains noted.