Electronic voting easy, getting high marks

There's seemingly no limit on our opportunities to "vote" these days. Why, some 63.4 million Americans "voted" in our last national election when Taylor Hicks was selected the new "American Idol."

If you've been watching the FIFA World Cup, you know you can vote for best goal of the tournament and the best young player. Telephone, online and text-message voting are hardly the stuff of scientific polls. One can vote as many times as one wants to pay for it or can click the computer mouse. I'm less fascinated with the validity of these outcomes than I am with the public's voracious appetite for this type of voting.

And in the real world? Voting has never been easier in Utah, thanks to the advent of touch-screen voting, which will get its first large-scale use on June 27, the day of Utah's primary election.

As a matter of convenience, it's never been easier to vote. If you use a computer, this will feel like old home week. If you use an ATM, this will be a piece of cake for you. If you don't, all these voting machines truly require is the ability to touch a computer screen.

If you're curious, even a little bit nervous, watch the demonstration at www.leaveyourprint.com. A few clicks of the computer mouse — which are really touches on a computer screen in the live version — and you can cast a ballot for president, the poet laureate, commissioner of the national pastime and affirm your affinity — or lack thereof — for dogs. Best of all, you can review your votes before you cast them.

This election also marks Utah's foray into early voting. Yup, people are voting now, many of them taking advantage of the new touch-screen technology. Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen said many early voters have given high marks to the touch-screen technology.

"We've had a good response to early voting. People really seem to like the new equipment," Swensen said. Early voting continues through Friday.

So far, about 400 people have voted early. It's too soon to know if this capability will boost voter turnout, but it's not for a lack of convenient means to cast one's ballot. Registered voters can vote early, vote by mail or show up to the polls on election day.

It's not quite as simple as voting for "American Idol," but surely more is at stake than whether Hicks or Katharine McPhee get a recording contract. As it turned out, both of them did.