Paper versus touchscreen is the question surrounding voting

OKTIBBEHA COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Paper versus touchscreen was the question when it came to voting procedures.

Oktibbeha Circuit Clerk Tony Rook had the answer.

“We found that most individuals want paper. They want to be able to put their hands on paper. The paper ballot we use is very similar to a scantron so everybody’s familiar with it. Everybody’s used a scantron card. So you bubble in your results and then you run it through the DS200 which is a scanner, which tabulates those results,” said Rook.

By making the transition early from electronic voting machines to paper ballots with a scanning machine, Oktibbeha County was prepared for the state’s directive.

“The state has now mandated that all counties go to paper. So we were really ahead of the curve and knew this was probably gonna come. So one reason we did it, number one: we needed the machines. Number two: we wanted to gain as much experience as we could before it was mandated by the state,” said Rook.

Rook says having paper ballots makes it easier to find answers if there are ever questions about an election.

“What I really like about the paper ballots…before with the TSX, and they work really well but you simply had an electronic screen. You basically had to trust those results. Some people did some people did not but when you have paper ballots, now you have a paper trail. So for some reason, if a case goes to court, now the court has physical evidence in the form of those ballots. You did not have that before,” said Rook.