The new election machines will be set up and used during the Nov. 8 municipal general election there.
The actual city was still being determined as of press time. However, it will be one of only a handful across the state to be selected, County Clerk/Auditor Steve Rawlings said.
But in the meantime, visitors to the county fair Aug. 17-20 will have a chance to try out the machines. Two will be set up, he said.
There should be 100 (of an eventual 833) machines by the Nov. 8 election. That will make it possible to install one at each of the polling places across the county, Rawlings said.
All 833 units should be received from the manufacturer by year's end.
Storage space is being remodeled in the basement of the Farmington Branch library, "coming along very well," at a cost of about $40,000, he said.
And if all goes well, on Tuesday county commissioners could sign a contract clearing the way for machines to be delivered.
After the so-called "hanging chad" problems discovered in Florida during the 2000 presidential elections, a federal mandate cleared the way for new machines to be installed across the country.
Statewide cost for the new machines is $27 million, with the state footing that purchase price, Rawlings said.
"They are supposed to last us through at least 2015, but some are saying they'll last 20 years," he said. "In the end, we'll have to have some money in reserve to purchase new equipment.
"We're excited about the new technology. It's very easy to use. We tested it, had the verifiable paper trail," Rawl-ings said.
He enumerated some of its features, including headphones for those who may have sight problems, or a screen that can be read for those with hearing problems, including type enlargement capability.
State election officials, including Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert and Elections Director Michael Cragun, a former Davis County commissioner, met with county officials Tuesday afternoon.
They reviewed the contract state officials want to sign with each county.
Of recent news reports from California that brought into question the reliability of Diebold machines, used in a special election there, Rawlings said: "They had a test election, 10,000 votes were cast on these same machines that we are going to be getting.
"Of 10,000 votes cast, there were only 10 votes that had to be redone," he said. "The printer on 10 different occasions jammed, but they did not lose a single vote. They just had to have a poll worker come over and reset the machine."
No votes were lost, he reiterated, although newspaper reports had indicated a 10 percent error rate.
"There was not an error, it was error-free," Rawlings em-phasized. "There was a one-tenth of 1 percent malfunction, a lot lower than we had nationwide on punch card ballots. That was 2-1/2 percent."
Federal officials certified use of the Diebold machines in the California test election, Rawlings said.
"Our intent is to get going as rapidly as possible to get some (machines) in, to get the public trained on them," Rawlings continued.
"Early voting" options are also being studied with the Legislature and state elections office, he said. "It would mean probably two weeks before the election people could probably start voting.
"In the past, they had to come to the courthouse (to do that). We're talking about setting that up at other locations. We'll need our legislators' support on that," he added.
"That will reduce lines at polling places on election day if we can get a good percentage of people out early to vote."
tbusselberg@davisclipper.com
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