GILROY
– What’s your favorite garlicky food? Are you staying overnight
in Gilroy during the Garlic Festival?
GILROY – What’s your favorite garlicky food? Are you staying overnight in Gilroy during the Garlic Festival?
While these questions may not seem like they’ll make much difference come November, Santa Clara County is hoping Garlic Festivalgoers will hit the polls at Christmas Hill Park to test out its new touch-screen voting system which will be used in the fall elections.
“This is the first time we’ve done special ballots,” said Gwendolyn Mitchell, director of the Office of Public Communication for the county. “The function works the same whether you’re voting for, say, governor or your favorite garlic foods. It’s a fun way to get people interested in the machines and how they work.”
While the touch-screen system will not be in place for the governor’s recall vote in October, 12 machines will be on hand on Garlic Avenue at the park for people to become acquainted with the new system. While all of the machines will ask voters to answer festival-related questions, three also will have sample ballots for a possible election. The votes of the election will be available daily when the park closes and the final results will be made public Monday morning.
“I’m sure city officials and festival organizers will find this beneficial,” Mitchell said. “I think a question that will help a lot of them is, ‘Did they have an overnight stay?’ ”
The county currently utilizes the Poll Star system, which utilizes punch-card ballots for elections. The Poll Star system will be used for the governor recall vote Oct. 17, said Elma Rosas, media coordinator for the Registrar of Voters Office.
The new system is currently on display at the County Registrar of Voters in San Jose, has been displayed at other county festivals and will be at the Santa Clara County Fair next month.
“Basically, it’s just part of our voter education and outreach program,” Rosas said. “We want to make the public feel comfortable.”
The machine looks and functions much like a bank automated teller machine, Rosas said. To use the machines, voters are given a card they insert into the machine, and the touch-screen system activates. The program is available in five different languages: English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese and Tagalog.
The machines are built by Sequoia Voting Systems, which got the $18.9 million project in April. According to Rosas, the Registrar of Voters Office is trying to secure funding for the project through Proposition 41 and the Help Americans Vote Act. Other funding would come from the general fund.
Mitchell said the response to the machines so far has been positive.
“People appreciated that the system is out there, they get to try it out ahead of time,” she said.
