Changes for Trousdale County voters

Trousdale County Administrator of Elections Steve Paxton addressed the Hartsville-Trousdale County Chamber of Commerce at its luncheon Tuesday, regarding upcoming changes that voters can expect to see in August.

The changes include a new address for the election commission, new voting machines, and new absentee ballots.

“This is a big year of change for us in the election commission,” said Paxton. “We are going to move over into the courthouse. We will be in the old register of deeds office. We are going to use the old downstairs courtroom as our early voting site. We appreciate the county, especially Cliff Sallee and his group, because they’ve worked very hard to get that building ready for us to be able to use.”

In addition to the site changes for the election commission, the state has mandated the use of new voting machines.

“We do have new (upgraded) voting machines,” said Paxton. “If you voted in the March election, you noticed that the interface was relatively the same, but there’s a new component to it. The difference is that there is an extra step at the end of the (voting) process.”

The extra step on the new voting machines produces a paper copy of voters’ selections for auditing purposes by the state.

“The new machines never go online; they don’t have capability,” said Paxton. “So, no one can hack into them from the internet.

“The state general assembly decided that, in addition to the electronic reading machine, they wanted to have a paper copy of how voters had voted. The election commission will store (the paper copy) for 22 months, so it can be audited. They will be able to go back on paper and verify the results of an election.”

For those voting by absentee ballot, changes have also been made to the process.

“Our absentee process is going to change just a little bit,” said Paxton. “In years past, we just sent you a paper ballot. The paper ballot would come out, and you would just mark an X in the box, but that was very expensive. So, we have shifted how to the type of system that is used by many of our surrounding counties. Now, what you are going to get is a little (answer sheet) and a ballot guide. The ballot guide looks like the ballot, and next to (the candidate’s) name is a number. So, if you want to vote for a particular candidate, that’s the number you will bubble in on the answer sheet. This makes for counting the ballots much easier because they are scanned. And there is no question about misinterpretation. We are excited to use this system. We think it helps, and it saves the county money.”

According to Paxton, while voting precincts had to temporarily be changed during the March election, they will return to normal for August.

“We have 10 districts and five polling places — the elementary school, the senior center, the library, the high school, and Antioch Church of Christ,” said Paxton. “In the March election, school was not out of session, so we were not able to get in the schools for our normal polling places on election day. School will be out in August, so we will be going back to our normal polling places.

“Also, the early voting site will change; it will move over to the courthouse.”

For those interested in volunteering to work early voting or election day polls for the August or November elections, contact the election office at 615-374-2712.