Newer voting machines in NJ get back to paper trail

Using some of the $10.2 million in federal funding received to improve the integrity of the voting process, New Jersey has begun to buy newer voting machines.

Division of Elections Director Robert Giles says the state secretary of state decided to take a quarter of that money to purchase Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail voting machines that leave a paper record that can be used in case of a recount.

"We are now up to five counties that have participated and we've gotten a lot of good, positive feedback from from the counties and from the voters that have used this equipment," he said.

Those counties are Gloucester, Mercer, Middlesex, Union and Warren.

Three of the counties are using a ballot-marking device in which the user votes on screen, reviews a paper printout of their votes and then hits the "cast vote" button to accept the votes.

One county used paper ballots that are scanned after the voter fills in the bubbles.

Giles concedes there is not enough money right now to update all voting machines in the state but he believes that this pilot program is a step in the right direction.

"We are confident in the current equipment that we use and the security of the current equipment that we use," he said.

He hopes more counties will join the pilot program.

Joe Cutter is the afternoon news anchor on New Jersey 101.5