Warren County supervisors and election commissioners have asked for a demonstration of a ballot-marking machine as they consider whether to accept voting machines supplied by the state or go their own way.

Thursday, supervisors and the county’s five election commissioners heard from Steve Evans, regional sales manager for Election Systems and Software, the makers of the scanner voting machines the county has used since 1990.

The county’s decision is whether to update those machines at an estimated cost of $283,000 or accept 91 touch-screen machines from the state and buy 47 more at a total cost of $167,841.

Most Mississippi counties are expected to accept the touch-screen machines provided through the office of Secretary of State Eric Clark under a federal Help America Vote Act grant.

District 5 Supervisor Richard George has said he thinks voters might be intimidated by the touch-screen machines, made by Diebold, and already in use in Hinds and Rankin counties.

Thursday, he was joined by others, including District 2 Election Commissioner Retha Summers. “I don’t really like the touch screen,” she said.

Board president and District 1 Supervisor David McDonald concurred. “I think (the touch screen machines) will disenfranchise a lot of older voters,” he said.

Evans said the ES&S Optech Eagle scanning machines meet the requirements of HAVA and all the county would have to do is buy models that allow disabled people to vote unassisted.

His company makes such a machine, called the AutoMARK, and the price is about $5,000 each.

With the scanner system, a voter marks a paper ballot with a special pen and then feeds the ballot into a scanner where the vote is recorded electronically. The ballot is then retained in a box below the scanner and can be hand counted if necessary.

“You have the best paper trail in the world,” Evans said giving one of the main advantages of the system the county now uses.

Evans said the county may want to consider upgrading its scanners with the newest model for general use which, he said, would cost about $4,500 each.

After Evans left, District 1 Election Commissioner Johnny Brewer said he had no real preference, but predicted counties could be required to go to the touch screen machines in the near future.

Clark has said the touch-screen machines also create a valid paper record and reduce errors common on scanned and other ballots that make them invalid and not counted.

Summers said a problem is the lengthy set of instructions touch-screen voters must follow and she feared this would put off many voters. “We want the most voter friendly machines,” Summers said.

Summers and Brewer agreed the touch-screen machines might require more poll workers and Brewer pointed out switching to the touch-screen machines would require a lot of training of the public on how to use them.

HAVA was passed in 2002 after ballot confusion in Florida in 2000 presidential voting. It sets new criteria for access to voting places and accuracy in tallies which which states and localities must comply. The state opted to provide the touch-screen machines after competitive bidding.