Some Voters Set to Test Drive New Machines ROCHESTER, NY (WXXI) - Voters in Wheatland and parts of Charlotte will be using a new type of voting machine on Tuesday as Monroe County test an "optical scan" machine in polling places there. At those polling stations, the new machines will replace the lever model.

Election commissioner Tom Ferrase says those voters should find the new machines easy to use.

"They'll be given a ballot that they can fill in the various ovals for the candidates that they want. We'll actually give them a pen to do that ... and a privacy station they can go in to do it. They'll just walk over to one of the optical scans, put their ballot in, and as long as they haven't over-voted - in other words, voted for too many candidates in a race - or left the ballot totally blank, their ballot will be accepted by the optical scan machine and it'll tell them that their vote's been cast and that'll be it."

The new machines keep the physical ballot that voters mark, as well as a digital record of the vote, so the count can be verified at the end of the night. This year three percent of ballots will be audited to make sure the machines work correctly.

Elsewhere in Monroe County, voters will be using the old lever machines, and ballot marking devices. Ballot marking devices are for voters who need assistance filling out their ballot.

New York is under court order to test out new machines this year, and to totally phase out lever machines in the 2010 elections.

Ferrase says the optical scan machine will be used county-wide next year if all goes well with this year's pilot.

You can learn more about the candidates in the Tuesday, November 3 elections by going to WXXI's Elections Guide.

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