Polling locations going digital

Published 4:25 pm Wednesday, May 30, 2018

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Chilton County voters will have a slightly different experience when they go to vote during the statewide primary election on June 5.

This will be the first election that poll pads will be used.

Poll workers attended a training seminar at the Chilton County Courthouse on May 29 to familiarize themselves with how the pads operate and the transition from paper copy to a digital format.

The poll pads partner with Apple.

The poll pads will be synced to its individual polling location and will eliminate sorting the voters alphabetically by their last names.

The names of each voter assigned to the specific polling location can be found in a single polling pad.

The goal behind the polling pads is to streamline the voting process for both the poll workers and the voters.

Chilton County Probate Judge Bobby Martin stressed the importance that voters bring a form of identification when they go to vote.

A vote cannot be cast without proper identification.

There are several forms of acceptable forms of identification, such as an Alabama driver’s license, military ID, passport and student ID from a state school.

Certain IDs possess a barcode on the back of the card that will be scanned, while IDs without a barcode will be entered manually.

Once an ID is scanned or entered, the voter will select a political party and verify the information on the screen with a signature.

Following the sign-in process, the poll worker will present the voter with their ballot.

The poll workers were presented with every possible scenario during the training exercise, including if a voter appears on the screen as an absentee or inactive.