The Jefferson County Clerk’s office had planned to utilize (ES&S) Election Systems and Software’s E-poll book on a trial basis during the period of early voting for this year’s General Election. However, due to the overwhelming number of incoming voter registration applications from the Secretary of State’s office and the Department of Motor Vehicles; there will not be sufficient time to ensure that all the data entry is complete and that all of the newly received voter registration files can be verified and uploaded in time for the start of West Virginia’s early absentee voting this Wednesday morning.

Clerk Jennifer Maghan says, “It’s wonderful that so many people are interested in registering to vote for the upcoming General Election and our priority is to ensure that all the voters who registered by the deadline are entered into our Statewide Voters Registration System so that they are listed on the Poll book that verifies every registered voter by precinct. While a trial run would have been ideal, rushing the use of new software application two days before early voting is not wise. We still have time to test the product out during on Election Day.”

Chief Deputy Clerk of Elections, Nikki Painter has arranged for Precinct 27, North Jefferson Elementary School, to be a test precinct for the electronic poll books. The poll clerks at Precinct 27 are very excited to have been selected as the test precinct and Deputy Painter strongly feels that “testing the poll books in a precinct on Election Day will give us a true sense of its usability in future elections.” A hard copy of the poll book will also be available in the precinct if a problem should arise with the electronic poll book.