CANYON COUNTY — Punch-card ballots are history in Canyon County. An optically scanned ballot will replace the old system for the Nov. 4 general election.

The new ballots are printed on 8.5-by-17-inch paper. Voters will fill in an oval on the ballot to indicate their choice for each question or candidate.

Election clerks and poll workers took part in the Canyon County Fair to give an overview of the new voting process and to answer questions from the public. The booth also included five voting stations that gave fairgoers a chance to take the new system on a test drive.

The old punch-card system had become a burden to maintain, Chief Deputy County Clerk Brad Jackson said.

“It’s becoming increasingly difficult to get replacement cards and service for the punch-card system. It fell into disuse after the 2000 election in Florida. I think there’s only one serviceman in the whole country,” he said. “We felt if we didn’t do something, we’d be forced to. We wanted to do it in a planned and orderly manner.”

The purpose of the dry run at public events like the fair is to “make sure we don’t have any kinks,” elections office customer service specialist Bobbi Jo Brown said. “We’re educating the people. We don’t want them to show up and not know what to do.”

Voting step-by-step

Residents can vote by mail if they request absentee ballots. But at the polling site, here’s what to expect:

1. Sign in to make sure you’re registered.

2. Go to a demonstration table to learn how to fill out the new ballots. Then go to the end of the table to get a ballot.

3. Enter the booth and fill out the ballot with the pencils provided, being careful to completely cover the oval of your choice.

4. To cast the ballot, put it in a folder to maintain secrecy, then slide the ballot into a sealed box.

5. When the polls close at 8 p.m., election workers count all the ballots and make sure that the number of ballots cast equals the number of stubs in their record book.

What folks had to say

“I liked it. I think it’ll be a lot easier for people. I think it’ll be a good change for us and I think it’ll be successful.”

— Patricia Cook, Caldwell

“We had these in Oregon. It was just so much easier, easier to understand. You filled it in and that’s it. I think they’re much easier and you don’t have the controversy like in Florida.”

— Randy Walker, Nampa

“Some people might have trouble with it, but it’s like most surveys you fill out, like tests in school.”

— Doug Brown, Caldwell

“The hanging chad people from Florida might have a problem with it. They’d have a hanging pencil lead problem! I hope the county will sincerely consider these surveys and consider the responses.”

— Diana Brown, Caldwell