Hamilton County may join the growing number of Indiana counties that use iPad check-ins for voters at their polling places.
Elections Administrator Kathy Richardson – who’s also a state representative -- says a total of about 20 counties, including Allen and Lake, already use or are planning to employ so-called "electronic poll pads." Voters sign in by swiping their drivers licenses.
Richardson says the pad system - which needs Hamilton County Council approval - would speed up the process.
“Once you vote, we have to bring the poll books back and scan every name that’s voted to get your vote history recorded,” Richardson says. “This would be real-time, at the polls – once you’ve voted, it would be logged into our SBRS system.”
From that point on, voters would cast ballots by usual means.
Richardson says the county would need about 220 iPads for its 217 precincts, at a cost of about $440,000.
“I consider it a lot of money, of course, but I also consider it a value to our voters. I guess if you figure it out, it’s less than $2 a voter,” Richardson says. “So, to be spending something on them that would help the process along and make it more efficient, I think is very important as well.”
Richardson says she expects the county council to take up the proposal soon. She says wants to implement the system by next spring at the latest -- before the 2016 presidential election.