With little to do because of a very low voter turnout, poll workers from left, Beverly VanDyke and Peggy Baker, sit and read while waiting for voters at New York Elementary school. Only 9 voters had come in by 10 a.m.

The county’s top election official said new voting technology that is being used for the first time in a Douglas County election is working well.

But Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew said he was looking into reports that some people were having problems casting provisional ballots, or that their names weren’t showing up on voter rolls.

“If a citizen runs into something that they don’t think is right, they can contact us, and we’ll send someone to check it out,” Shew said.

The county clerk’s office is located in the Douglas County Courthouse, 11th and Massachusetts streets, and can be reached via telephone at 832-5147

There have been some reports to the Journal-World of people who are confident that they registered to vote but their names can not be found on the voter rolls. One poll worker at the Presbyterian Manor site, 1429 Kasold Drive, said that the book appeared to be out of alphabetical order in some places.

Other people reported that some polling workers also appeared to be unsure how to allow people to cast a provisional ballot, which is the procedure that allows people to vote though their names are not found on the rolls.

Shew said he had not heard those reports and would have members of his office begin asking polling workers about those issues.

“Anybody who is not in the book can vote provisionally,” Shew said. “We are pretty confident the rolls are correct, though.”

Shew, though, said the new voting system did require the voter roles to be printed off in a slightly different format than in past years.

“They do read differently than they used to,” Shew said.

Voters also have reported that some polling places opened late, in some cases by as much as 15 minutes. Shew, though, said he didn’t believe those reports were entirely accurate. He said he was confident that every polling location was open at 7 a.m., but he said some of the electronic machines were not yet fully operational by that time.

But he said that would not stop anyone from voting because voters still use paper ballots, and if the electronic counting machine was not yet functioning the paper ballot would be taken and placed in a special box to be counted later.

Shew said he likely would change the county’s procedures for the next election and require poll workers to begin arriving by 6 a.m. – about a half-hour earlier than normal – to begin preparing polling stations for voters.

Some voters this morning said they were uneasy about the reliance on computer software in the voting process.

“It is just somewhat disconcerting to have this machine suck your ballot down and say that it has counted your vote,” said Lawrence resident Bruce Balke. “I would like to have some feedback form that says this is how I voted, so that I know the machine counted it right.”

Many voters, though, said they didn’t notice any difference. Voters continue to mark a paper ballot. But instead of sticking the ballot in the traditional metal ballot box, it is placed in the computerized vote counting machine. All the paper ballots are kept so that they can be manually counted if there is any question that the machines have not totaled the results correctly.

From left, Rhetta Noever shows Jean O'Toole how to place her ballot in the new voting machine as Nancy A. Fisher and Bonnie Bond look on. Low voter turnout gave voting officials ample time to get comfortable with the new Douglas County voting system, which tabulates the votes immediately after the ballot is placed in the voting box. O'Toole voted in Tuesday's primary election at Central Junior High, 1400 Massachusetts.

The main difference for voters is that they now use black pens to mark their ballots instead of the special pencils that voters have grown accustomed to.

“I’m just telling people that we’ve graduated,” said Lori Lange, a poll worker at the Pinckney location.

The machines were put in place to comply with federal regulations that are designed to make it easier for people with disabilities to vote.

Beverly Benso, a poll worker at South Park, said one blind individual had been in to vote and was appreciative of the new technology. A specialized electronic voting machine allowed him to vote without any assistance from poll workers. Previously, two poll workers would have had to read the ballot and mark it for him.

“Those voters, I feel, have a lot more independence and privacy with this system,” Benso said.