The biggest issue that came out of the 2004 election [for Boulder County] was the amount of time it took. The decision to go with polling-place optical or digital scanners will increase the speed with which the ballots are counted.

If the county is going to bring in an outside consultant, [the consultant] really needs to see the entire process, and that's not something they want to rush into.

Once we receive the equipment, we have to have the staff trained on this and get our election judges trained. We'd also like to take it around the county and demonstrate it to the voters so that when they walk into the polling place for the first time it's not the first time they've seen the equipment.

I certainly think that in asking vendors to bid for either a polling-place solution or a vote-center solution gives us better analysis of what the costs would be.

We don't want to get rid of paper ballots no matter what we're accused of. Some people are adamant that they want to keep paper ballots. Having the system in place would allow them to do so and not use an electronic voting machine if they do not wish to.

I think the big difference for me this time around was name recognition. I?m basically representing the younger generation, as people my age or younger might be more willing to approach me.