Otsego GOP to vote on paper

By Tom Grace
Cooperstown News Bureau

February 02, 2008 04:00 am

—

Democrats and Republicans will be voting on different machines during Tuesday's presidential primaries, and in several towns in Otsego and Delaware counties, Republicans will vote on paper ballots.

"In some towns, we have only one voting machine, and it would be too complicated to switch ballots after every voter,'' Charlotte Koniuto, Otsego County's Republican elections commissioner, said Thursday.

The decision to have Republicans, rather than Democrats, vote on paper ballots was made by her and Hank Nicols, the county's Democratic elections commissioner, Koniuto said.

"We did that because the Democratic ballot is much more complicated than the Republican ballot,'' she said.

Republicans will vote only for a presidential candidate, selecting one of eight names on the ballot. Although Republican voters will be selecting three delegates per congressional district to send to their national convention, the delegates' names will not be on the ballot.

The Republican candidate who wins the most votes in the state wins all the delegates at play in the contest.

Democrats in the 20th and 24th congressional districts will vote for one of six presidential candidates on the ballot and also vote for five delegate candidates.

Democratic presidential candidates who receive at least 15 percent of the vote in each congressional district will be entitled to at least one delegate, and the other four delegates will be divvied up based on the candidates' vote totals.

Vote totals for delegate candidates _ who in a sense are running against each other, even if they're on the same slate _ are used to determine who will go to the convention.

"The Democratic ballot is complicated, and we didn't want to have to count all those names by hand,'' Sheila Ross, Otsego County's deputy Republican elections commissioner, said Friday.

Nicols said it would be possible, but impractical, to allow people from both parties to vote on the same machine. The venerable lever-action machines, which may be recording their last results Tuesday, can be outfitted with a yoke, he said, and then they can be switched between ballots.

"It's possible to do, but we would be running a high risk of human error,'' he noted.

Nicols said the Board of Elections will provide envelopes for voters to place their paper ballots in, and officials will take precautions to make sure everyone's vote is private.

Towns where Republicans will vote on paper in at least one election district include Westford, Burlington, Cherry Valley, Exeter, Roseboom, Pittsfield, Plainfield, Worcester and Cherry Valley.

An official at the Delaware County Board of Elections who declined to give her name Friday said Republicans in some towns in the county also will be voting on paper ballots during the presidential primary.

Ross noted that the lever machines are soon to be replaced by optical scanners, which should eliminate the need for using different systems for Republicans and Democrats.

Because Republican votes will be counted by hand, results from the county will not be known until Wednesday, she said. Democratic results will be known Tuesday night.