Recent election troubles are getting county officials’ attentionas they look for ways to possibly speed up the vote-countingprocess.

During a routine board meeting Monday, Lincoln Countysupervisors mentioned a recent DAILY LEADER poll showingrespondents largely in favor of the county changing to new votingmachines. During the Nov. 5 general election, counting of paperballots scanned by a machine was finished until after midnight.

Several officials Monday focused on ballot-related problems.

“We need to get (Circuit Clerk) Terry Lynn (Watkins) and theelection commissioners to look at the ballots,” said District 3Supervisor and Board President Nolan Earl Williamson.

Williamson said election officials need to make sure the ballotsare made of the right fiber and consistency for use in themachines. County Administrator David Fields pointed outweather-related factors that cause the ballots to be moist and tohang up in the scanning machine.

“I think a lot of this was it was a wet, rainy day,” Fieldssaid.

Williamson said new voting machines would be a good idea if somefunding assistance is available. He said new machines could be amatter of the “Three R’s”: Realization, Raising taxes andRationalization.

“We’ve got to sit around this board and find out where we canget the money,” Williamson said.

Following the recent ballot and machine problems, electionofficials indicated they would be contacting other counties thatuse optical scanning machines to see how they deal with ballotmoisture issues. Watkins, who was not at the board meeting, saidother counties had not been contacted yet.

Watkins, though, said later she had contacted the Secretary ofState’s Office regarding federal funding to assist localgovernments in improving voting activities. A recent law provides$3.9 billion in federal grants over three years to states to helpthem replace old voting machines and to improve voter education andpoll worker training.

“I am trying to get some more information on the federal funds,”Watkins said. “That sounds good to me.”