2006 News

November 9 , 2006

Commissioners Declare Election Process a Great Success

After months of effort aimed at ensuring a smooth General Election, the Bucks County commissioners declared success following Tuesday’s election when 230,000 Bucks Countians came out to vote on new electronic voting machines for the first time.

Bucks voters were overwhelmingly positive about their experience on the Danaher 1242 machines. “It’s no coincidence that all our processes went exceptionally well yesterday,” noted Chairman Jim Cawley. “The smoothness of the election validated our choice of machine, as well as the aggressive, multi-pronged public education campaign we launched in the spring. I’m happy to report that we had a smooth and transparent election.”

According to Cawley, the transition to new machines was simplified because they are similar to the county’s lever machines. “One of our selection criteria was ease of use, because we wanted voters to feel a sense of familiarity with our new machines. It’s gratifying to hear voters exclaiming about the machines’ simplicity – it indicates we met a major goal.”

David Sanko, the county’s chief operating officer, said that many preparations were put into place to ensure the integrity of the election which debuted the electronic machines, including close to 100 county employees working the process, including some as roving facilitators at the county’s 307 polling places. “Our intention was to put measures into place to expedite resolution of any issues arising at the polling places. We owed it to our electorate to prepare for the unexpected.” As it turns out, no more mechanical issues arose with the Danaher machines than with any other election using lever machines. All were resolved with routine work orders or assistance rendered via phone from technicians.

The county Board of Elections now has several tasks in front of them. Provisional ballots will be examined and counted accordingly, overseas and military absentee ballots will be counted, and following those two steps, the board will begin to certify the election results early next week. Results to date are unofficial.