Bogue Chitto Attendance Center school council candidates knewwithin 15 minutes after voting opened Monday who would holdoffice.

The school field-tested an electronic voting system for theLincoln County School District. It was the first time students inthe district had voted electronically for council president,vice-president and other elected student offices.

The school opened three “precincts” for voting. Seniors lined upin the library while juniors cast their ballots in the career lab.Freshmen and sophomores cast their ballots in the career discoverylab.

Within 15 minutes, all of the students had cast their votes andthe results had been tabulated. It is usually two to three daysbefore the results can be announced, said Patrick Brown, assistantdirector of technology for the district.

The screen display appeared as a test or quiz. Problems werepresented as questions, such as, “Who would you like as studentcouncil president?” Candidates were listed as answers.

Voting monitors simply entered a password after each student’svote to verify the ballot.

“It really went well overall. I have everything tallied up andready to go,” said Christi Terrell, voting montior, after thevoting.

Brown said he was pleased with the performance of the systemduring the voting process. There were no glitches.

It was a good thing, Brown said, because there was no backupplan. Paper ballots had not been printed.

“We were all crossing our fingers and hoping our hearts wouldn’tfall to the floor,” he said. “It either worked or it didn’t.”

Terrell came up with the idea of electronic voting for studentelections one day in the libary, Brown said.

“I think she was just joking, but it got me to thinking,” hesaid.

The advantages of computerizing the voting process not only givestudents more time in the classroom with less time lost in lines,but also reduces paper costs for the district, he said. He adapteda district software program, DiscoverNet, to simulate electronicvoting.

“It’s not software that’s built for this, but we were creativewith what we have to make it work,” Brown said. “We just tried ithere experimentally. We’re planning to expand it.”

All four county campuses will likely be using the system nextyear, he said. Although “not even remotely” tied into a currentfederal and state push to computerize elections, Brown said thesystem will prepare the students for joining the public votingprocess when they become eligible.

Student council winners at Bogue Chitto this year were presidentMeleah Brown, vice president Latoya Braxton, treasurer CandaceAvants and secretary Shasta Porter.

Class representatives taking office are seniors Joseph Hart,Jenna Rigaud and Jessica Smith; juniors Kimberlee Thomas, MalloryTurner and Devon Welch; sophomores Chassity Moak, Claire Reyes andKayla Wallace; and freshmen Kelli Howard and Blaine Myers.