Post-election audits have been called unfunded mandates by registrars and municipalities (Note: audits are actually being paid for at this time by Federal HAVA funds). But raises justified by the new optical scan machines seem to be no problem in one Connecticut town. <read>
The Common Council has approved raises for poll workers, who will be doing twice the work on Election Day now that the city has switched to an optical scanner ballot-counting system.
Voting will be as simple as filling out a Lotto ticket for the voter, but involves much more work for election officials, who have been in what registrars call “boot camp training” in the use of the new machines.
Poll workers will have to know the technology so well that they can explain it to any voter who has a question or problem. And they have to do all the troubleshooting without looking at the completed paper ballots.
