Officials train on voting machines

LOWVILLE — Eight people from Lewis, Jefferson and Hamilton counties took part in a voting machine technician training on Monday and Tuesday.

"This is kicking off our election year," said Lewis County Republican Election Commissioner Ann M. Nortz.

Officials from Dominion, the company that makes the electronic voting machines, on Monday conducted classroom training for the technicians and reviewed the company's training manual at the Lewis County Board of Elections office on Trinity Avenue.

Then, on Tuesday, the technicians — some of whom are new to the job and others who were taking the class as a refresher from last year — conducted hands-on troubleshooting, requiring them to find and fix machine problems created by the company officials.

Dominion appears to have incorporated issues and problems encountered during last fall's inaugural election with the new machines into its training regimen, Mrs. Nortz said. "This is a new curriculum," she said.

"They've worked out the bugs, and they're working to please," said Lewis County Democratic Election Commissioner Elaine McLear.

Mrs. McLear said Dominion has done a good job of responding to county election officials when they report concerns with the machines.

"Some companies don't do that," she said.

The technician training was set up to include the three counties so that the cost of the session could be shared, the Lewis County commissioners said.

Mrs. Nortz and Mrs. McLear said they anticipate that training sessions for election inspectors will be conducted in May, but no dates or times have been set.