ISLAND COUNTY — The legal battle about recalling California Gov. Gray Davis has once again called into question voting systems that use punch cards.
In Island County, though, the specter of hanging chads does not seem to worry auditor Suzanne Sinclair.
"Each ballot system has its own set of problems," Sinclair said. "If you don’t have good procedures around, then whatever you’re using, any system, can be fallible."
Island County is one of several in the state that still use punch cards.
On Monday a federal appeals court postponed California’s Oct. 7 recall election, ruling it cannot proceed as scheduled because some votes would be cast using outmoded punch-card ballot machines.
Jack Archibald has lived on Camano Island since 1977, and he said he still prefers the punch cards.
"It seems a little less tamperproof than something out in cyberspace," Archibald said. "That new technology kind of frightens me."
Like it or not, Sinclair said, a new federal law will require local governments such as Island County to abandon their punch cards by 2006.
She said the county’s recounts have proved the punch card system highly accurate, but switching to something else might help make voting smoother for absentee voters, who have increased from 30 to 60 percent of the county’s ballots in the past six years.
Still, Sinclair admitted that Florida’s problems had a silver lining during Island County’s next election — voters left far fewer hanging chads.
"They were the cleanest ballots you’ve ever seen," Sinclair said.
Reporter Scott Morris: 425-339-3292 or smorris@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
