Voters across Westchester County will have to become familiar with new procedures to have their choices counted at election time. Casting a ballot in the county is catching up with the electronic age.

Residents going to the polls, beginning with the county’s primary elections on September 14, will be confronted with something different: optical scan electronic voting machines. The apparatus is contemporary, but the voting process is undeniably a trifle more complicated than with the traditional lever style machine it is replacing. The lever type machine has been used, in one form or another, for over a century.

Chosen by the County Board of Elections, the optical scan machines are different enough for the Board to be conducting a “Voter Outreach and Education” campaign announced this month to acquaint residents with their operation. The drive, running into October, is giving interested attendees at six forum dates set at five locations, an opportunity to see the new voting machines, “up close and personal,” as the BOE’s announcement stated.

About the voters, Board of Elections Commissioner Carolee Sunderland said, “...we want them to feel as comfortable as possible with the new process.”

“We join other counties in the metropolitan area and beyond who are using the new optical scan machines,” Commissioner Reginald LaFayette, said, adding that, “People don’t always like change and we want to let them see and test out the new machines to make the transition a smooth one.”

Town and municipal clerks also are to have the new machines in their offices to give voters a pre-use awareness of how they operate, according to a County Board of Elections announcement.

The towns of Mount Pleasant and Greenburgh have given instructions to election inspectors so they will be able to assist voters at the polling stations. Greenburgh has also opened its doors to “come in and become acquainted with the new voting machines.” A demonstration machine will be available to the public along with guidance from the Clerk’s office at the Town Hall, 177 Hillside Avenue. (Scheduled times are listed in the box below. )

The County BOE mandated the replacement of the old machines because of a federal law called the “Help America Vote Act.” That legislation was enacted in part because of the storm that erupted over disputed votes during the 2002 presidential elections. It required that states and localities improve their election procedures.

The new process calls for voters to be given a paper ballot and “privacy screen,” and then be provided a place to fill out the ballot. They are required to mark their choices on the ballot with a number 2 pencil, and then place their paper ballot in the optical scanner and are able also to check it for accuracy, for an “overvote,” too many candidates checked off, or blanks. It may be automatically returned to you if the machine detects an error. Otherwise, it is immediately tabulated. The ballot will fall into a locked box.

Special apparatus is also available to help those with various disabilities to vote.

A list of the locations and dates of the county’s instructional forums and detailed descriptions on how to use the new voting machines is available at the following Westchester County BOE website: http://citizenparticipation.westchestergov.com/ and clicking on the appropriate display.