TURNER – Maine’s voting system will be technically changed by Nov. 7, but the average voter going to the polls will notice little difference from past balloting experiences.

One significant difference will be the establishment of a Central Voter Registration system whereby every voter in Maine is registered on a central computer database in Augusta under control of the Secretary of State’s office. A second will be the presence of an Accessible Voting Solution telephone system in each voting jurisdiction.

Approximately 460 municipalities in Maine that maintain voter records and conduct elections will have received a computer and other equipment to connect it directly to the central system. Some of the benefits of the central registration system are touted to be streamlined absentee ballot tracking and petition certification, elimination of most reporting requirements to the state, online viewing of voter signatures, easy-to-use reporting and online inquiries

Turner’s Town Clerk Eva Leavitt has been helping to put the Maine system together and was able to arrange for one of several training sessions scheduled throughout the state to be held at Leavitt Area High School on Thursday, Sept. 14. Town clerks are required to attend at least one of these sessions that will continue through mid-October.

The training sessions are the beginning of the final stages of implementing the system for the Nov. 7 elections. About the end of September a pilot election will be conducted in selected municipalities to test the system. In the third week of October a mandatory statewide mock election involving all voting jurisdictions will be held to pinpoint problems.

A key part of the training sessions will involve the Accessible Voting Solution, a telephone system available at all polling places for persons with disabilities or those needing any type of assistance in casting a ballot.

A new preview and practice mode is built into the system, called Inspire, which will enable voters the opportunity to call from any location and review the ballot they will be voting on.

The system does not generate a printed ballot, so callers will be permitted to call as many times as they wish after the second week in October to practice using the Accessible Voting Solution. On Election Day these voters will be escorted to a separate booth and dial directly to an automated assistance line.

Passage by Congress of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 mandated creation of this system in all 50 states. In Maine, the Secretary of State’s office has facilitated the process with municipal clerks tending to the details at the local level.

Maine’s share of the funds appropriated by Congress to establish the system nationwide is about $16 million. The state had to come up with a $600,000 matching fund to purchase the computers, telephones and other equipment to create the system.