Long lines put eSlate to test as numbers best 1998 figures

Houston Chronicle ^ | Nov 2 2002 | STEVE BREWER

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http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/page1/1644248 Nov. 2, 2002, 1:32AM

Long lines put eSlate to test as numbers best 1998 figures By STEVE BREWER Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle

RESOURCE • Election Central: Candidate profiles, voting information, issues and much more about the Nov. 5 general election.

Harris County voters used $25 million in new electronic voting gear to cast early ballots in record numbers in the weeks leading up to Tuesday's election.

County Clerk Beverly Kaufman's office announced late Friday that 151,575 voters cast early ballots for the election -- 66,516 more than the 85,059 that voted early during the last midterm election in 1998.

Early voting started Oct. 19 and ended at 7 p.m. Friday, though it took poll workers until 9 p.m. to work through long lines in Cypress Creek, Alief and Jersey Village. Almost 42,000 mail-in ballots have also been sent out and Kaufman expects 39,000 of them back. In 1998, about 28,000 mail-in ballots were sent and about 90 percent of them were returned.

Those votes will be counted with new optical scanners the county bought along with the eSlate voting system that was used for early voting and will be used for the first time on Election Day.

The eSlate -- an electronic voting machine the size of a legal pad that allows voters to cycle through the ballot with a large dial -- is replacing the county's old punch card system. So far, it's only been used in early voting.

And though electronic systems have been used in other states, sometimes with embarrassing results, eSlate has never been used in a large Election Day contest. That means Harris County, the nation's third-most-populous county, will be the largest single voting jurisdiction in the nation to implement a new electronic system this year.

As a result, plenty of election experts, politicos and officials from around the country are keeping a close eye on Harris County, especially with the important role it will play in key races like the U.S. Senate race between John Cornyn and Ron Kirk and the brutal governor's race between incumbent Rick Perry and challenger Tony Sanchez.

In part, Kaufman said, she thinks the high early voter turnout can be attributed to the publicity generated by the new system and the massive public education campaign aimed at getting voters acquainted with it.

Kaufman, a Republican, also said nice weather in recent days has helped, along with the availability of more voting locations, strong voter registration drives and interest generated by many of the races.

"It's a combination of all those things," she said. "My goodness, voters started seeing political ads on television in May. It's hard to not know there's an election going on."

Predictably, Democrats and Republicans said they were getting an edge with high early voter turnout.

Sue Schechter, Harris County Democratic Party chairwoman, said she thinks Democrats have done well with early voters this time because they are "standing toe-to-toe" with Republicans for the first time since 1994.

"We're just competitive up and down the ballot, from top to bottom," she said, citing local and statewide races where Democrats are locked in close battles.

Jared Woodfill, local GOP chairman, disagreed.

He argued that high early voting almost always favors Republicans. And, he added, Republicans are energized because they think Democrats, like Sanchez, are trying to "buy the election."

Both politicos also disagreed on how their respective voters were coping with eSlate. Woodfill said he's heard nothing but praise for the new system -- a sentiment echoed by Kaufman -- and Schechter said she's gotten complaints about voters getting confused and about other issues, like longtime registered voters being turned away.

"But (Democratic voters) are getting through it," she conceded. "If I thought we were having some big deal out there, you'd hear me hollering that."

The big test for eSlate will be on Election Day, when the outcome may or may not give partisans reasons to yell. There are more than 1.9 million registered voters in the county and Kaufman predicted on Friday that at least 500,000 will vote Tuesday.

Schechter said she expects long lines at the polls Tuesday because people will need more time to get used to eSlate. If that happens, she said, some voters might get frustrated and leave.

Woodfill and Kaufman disagreed.

"I don't think that will be an issue," Woodfill said. "The polls are well-staffed and there's been a real effort to educate people on the new system."