Reply #31: IL: A better way to touch and go [View All]

[rumpel]

The Courier News

• Local invention: Voting machine avoids errors by generating paper record, too



By Mike Sullivan
staff writer

ELGIN — Although Sanford Morganstein received votes of confidence from the corporate world for inventing the automated telephone attendant and runs a Chicago-based software development firm, he's not about to rest on his laurels.

At age 62, Sandy, as he prefers to be called, has drawn on his background as a physicist to develop the Populex Digital Paper Ballot, an invention that, based on early returns, would likely get Al Gore's vote.

President and founder of Elgin-based Populex Corp., Morganstein readily admits his invention is not the only machine using computer-based touch screen technology.

Rival companies in Texas and Nebraska also are vying for contracts from election officials, having been certified to sell its machines in Illinois and five other states.

But unlike most other touch-screen systems, Morganstein noted, the Populex electronically records and then prints a voter-verifiable paper ballot card.

The final ballot, he explained, contains a bar code that is scanned to record and count the votes on election day.

Morganstein says he was asked by an election official to work on a touch-screen system following the debacle of the 2000 presidential election, notorious for its hanging chads during Florida recounts as the nation waited weeks to find out who was elected.

Morganstein said he forged ahead with one basic premise in mind: Touch-screen systems that record votes electronically, he reasoned, are subject to computer malfunctions that likely would cause errors in tabulation.

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/couriernews/business/3_3_EL21_POPULEX_S1.htm