A new Georgia law that would require voters to present new forms of identification is on hold-for now. On Oct. 18, a federal court ruling prohibited Georgia from enforcing the law for the Nov. 8 election. Decatur County Chief of Elections Doris White said she expected the issue would be resolved for 2006 elections. The next general election will take place on July 18, 2006.

To vote on Nov. 8, citizens will still be required to present the same identification they were required to have in the past, White said. Seventeen types of identification will be accepted, including a valid Georgia driver’s license, an ID card issued by any state or military branch, a United States passport, a photo ID issued by an employer or a college, birth certificates, Social Security cards, utility bills, bank statements, a gun or pilot’s license, a government check or paycheck, naturalization documents, adoption records, name and sex change records and any other valid government document.

If voters don’t have a required form of ID, they may sign an oath stating their identity is the one listed on the voter certificate kept by elections officials, White said.

Earlier this month, elections officials from counties in the Atlanta, Ga., metropolitan area told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution they believed a recent change to the internals of touch-voting machines has made vote counting take a longer period of time to complete.

When Georgia became the first state to use touch-voting machines in all of its counties in 2002, elections officials switched from counting paper ballots to counting votes stored on electronic media. The new system was designed to make it easier for voters to cast ballots and ensure accurate tabulation of votes.

Now, ballots are stored on a datacard that serves as the memory of a touch-screen voting machine. When the voting period ends, the datacards are removed and then inserted into a device that reads the ballots and securely transfers the information into a computer system. The votes are tabulated and then transmitted over a computer network to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.

After the touch-screen machines’ manufacturer, Diebold Elections Systems, upgraded the software the machines used this past spring, some of the Atlanta area elections officials complained that more time was required to record the information stored on the datacards. In one case, an official reported it took 30 seconds for the computer to process each datacard, which was seen as a problem when many datacards had to be processed.

White said she has not yet seen a slowdown in the counting of votes in local elections but noted that turnout was very low in the two elections that have been held since the voting machines’ software was upgraded.

Clerk of Elections Erica Hamilton said she watched a Diebold employee contracted by the county process datacards after a Sept. 20 referendum and said she believed it look considerably less than 30 seconds to process each card.

If a slowdown does occur when more ballots are cast, White said both she and Hamilton are both trained in the operation of the voting machines. White said the county contracts with Diebold to provide experts to test and operate the machines so that elections officials can focus on other important tasks.

At last Thursday’s Board of Elections meeting, White told the board she didn’t have an estimate for voter turnout. The office of mayor will be the only contested race on the ballot because the candidates for three City Council seats are running unopposed.

People who have a reason they won’t be able to vote in person on Election Day may cast absentee ballots in person or request an absentee ballot application to be sent to them by mail through this Friday. The Board of Elections office is located in the Decatur County Courthouse in downtown Bainbridge. Elections staff may be contacted at 243-2087.

Voters may cast ballots in advance of the election without a reason beginning next Monday, Oct. 31. Advance ballots may be cast at the Board of Elections office from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. through Friday, Nov. 4. Absentee ballots sent via mail will continue to be accepted through Nov. 8, however no advance voting will be conducted on Monday, Nov. 7.

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