Election chiefs wary of state’s new voter registration system | www.myajc.com

Elections chiefs for several metro Atlanta counties are warning that glitches in the state’s new voter registration system could cause frustrations for voters when polling starts in four weeks.

Data entry is more cumbersome, they say, and the new software often puts streets and houses on the wrong sides of district lines, which have been adjusted to account for the 2010 census.

“It’s very, very complex,” DeKalb Elections Director Maxine Daniels said. “We’re just concerned about how this is going to come together before November.”

Some county officials are concerned that voters could cast ballots in the wrong council races or get blocked from using touch-screen machines because precinct workers can’t find them in their computers.

Problems have already cropped up in the first jurisdiction to use the new system — Macon-Bibb County, which is holding an election Tuesday to pick the leaders of its newly consolidated government. During early voting, dozens of people cast ballots in the wrong commission races, and lines stalled for hours as poll workers checked addresses against district maps.

The Secretary of State’s Office started moving all 159 counties onto ElectionNet late last year, after spending $2.6 million to replace an antiquated program that had been in use since 1995. It’s not clear if the state’s software is to blame or if some other problem, such as user error, is plaguing Macon-Bibb, said Merle King, executive director of Kennesaw State University’s Center for Election Systems.

However, both the state and the software provider, Connecticut-based PCC Technology Group, acknowledged some problems with the software, saying they’re working feverishly to make fixes before early voting starts statewide on Oct. 14.

“We have people working around the clock to resolve these issues,” PCC Technology President Joe Singh said.

Wide-scale data problems could cast doubt on winners of close contests in hundreds of Georgia cities, leaving taxpayers on the hook for recounts or protracted litigation. Long lines could cause voters to give up and leave their precincts without casting their ballots.

“The question will be whether it’s on a scale that’s disruptive to the voting process,” said King.

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