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Scanners slowed mail-in system By PETER WONG Jackson County's new paper-ballot system worked as planned, but a last-minute deluge of ballots and lagging signature scanners slowed the processing of ballots in Tuesday's election. The unofficial final count of almost 41,000 ballots was completed about 6 a.m. Wednesday. The estimated participation countywide is about 41 percent of the county's registered voters. County Clerk Kathy Beckett barely had time to go home and change before returning to work a couple of hours later. She sent the rest of the elections division staff home for the day. Beckett said that delays Tuesday night did not result from the county's new paper ballots, pencil marks on which are tallied by an electronic scanner. This election was the first for the new system, which replaced punch-card ballots that had been used since 1966. "It worked beautifully," she said. But unlike previous county mail elections, which date back to 1987, Beckett said many voters returned their ballots just before the deadline Tuesday. Of the 40,991 ballots returned, nearly a third (12,848) were returned Monday and Tuesday. Slightly more than 11 percent (4,774) came back in the first two days after ballots reached voters in mid-October. Beckett said the usual pattern is for a big return of ballots in the days just after voters get them in the mail, then declining returns until just before election day itself. "This was just the opposite," she said. Beckett speculated earlier that many voters chose to return their ballots late this time because of the complexity of nine statewide measures, including seven affecting criminal justice. "I think we are going to see a trend of voters holding onto their ballots longer before returning them," she said Wednesday. About 6,000 of those last-minute ballots were deposited at designated dropoff sites, 1,400 more were submitted at the elections division counter, and the rest came by mail. Beckett said the last-minute deluge of ballots overburdened the electronic scanners that elections workers use to verify voter signatures on the backs of envelopes containing mail ballots. Of the county's three scanners, Beckett said one was not working because of a lack of replacement parts, and a second was working only intermittently. Each scanner reads about 350 signatures per hour. Until signatures are verified, the ballots cannot be prepared for counting. Beckett said county commissioners will sign a contract for the purchase of new scanners next week. The purchase, which is covered in the 1999-2000 budget, also provides for a machine to convert voter signatures on file to a new computer scanning system. "Without this equipment, we cannot run a primary election," she said. "It is something we have known about and should have done a long time ago." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA