Voting went high-tech across the state yesterday, with the new Diebold computerized touch-screen voting machines making their general election debuts in precincts from Smithfield to St. George.

With the exception of a few scattered reports of problems in Utah County, the machines seemed to work just fine, and that included the polling station at Highland High School in Sugar House, despite early reports that suggested otherwise.

People who arrived at Highland when the polls opened at 7 a.m. were initially lined up behind just one machine, giving rise to a rumor that the other seven machines were malfunctioning.

But nope. They just hadn't been turned on yet.

"We didn't have a problem," said Stan Syphus, the touch-screen technician at Highland. "Some of the people waiting to vote had a problem."

As Syphus explained, the law requires that one voting machine must be operational when the polls open, and other machines can then be brought into service as needed.

"We met our requirement, we had one machine ready to go," he said. "What we didn't count on was so many eager people at 7."

As many as 50 or 60 people lined up to vote on the one machine as Syphus set to work getting the other seven up and running.

"It was a little stressful," he said. "But by 8:30, there was no line, and I don't think anyone left without voting."

Setting up a voting machine should not be rushed, he added.

"Each machine has to be set up carefully," he said. "There's a process that has to be followed."

He displayed a booklet with seven pages and 51 steps involved in getting a touch-screen machine operational.

It took him about 15 minutes each to get the first two or three of Highland's machines ready, he said. "Then the last four or five went quicker. It's like drilling teeth — the more you drill, the faster you get."

The machines are not set up earlier than just before the polls open, to ensure voter security.

It would have helped, Syphus admitted, if the Highland precinct crew had showed up earlier than 6 a.m. for set-up.

"I guess we could have come at 4," he said, but without a lot of enthusiasm.

As it was, all was well that ended well.

After the brief early-morning logjam, Highland's high-tech polling place acquitted itself without a glitch and with negligible line-waiting.

During a midafternoon lull when there was no line at all, Rawlins Young, a veteran election judge who worked his first election in 1968, reflected that the good old days of paper ballots were not without their challenges either.

"One year, we were all finished, and we counted the ballots by hand, and we were one short," he said. "We kept counting and never did find it. Finally we took the ballots to the county and they ran them through their machine and they were all there. Nothing was missing.

"Sometimes humans make the mistakes, and sometimes machines make the mistakes."

And sometimes, you just have to wait until the humans turn on the machines.

---

Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.