Voters in the February Primary and April General Elections shouldn’t see the long lines voters faced in November.  City Clerk Lana Bero told the City’s Civic Affairs Committee the turnout is traditionally smaller for those local and state elections than the national elections.  In November the poll books caused the bottlenecks last November, and in the future, the poll books will split into five sections for the large elections.  For February, they will use two poll books.  This spring, all voters, whether in person or absentee will use the same scan-able paper ballots that had previously been used for absentee voting, except for handicap voters.  The city will be retiring the touch screen voting machines as the state will no longer certify them after 2021.

The County and City are purchasing new optical scan ballot machines that will be used starting next year.