Times Observer photo by Brian Ferry On Tuesday, voters in many parts of Warren County will see Poll Pads in use for the first time. The tablets replace the familiar poll books, but otherwise represent very little in the way of change.

Many Warren County voters who go to the polls on Tuesday will see some new equipment.

Poll Pads will replace the poll books that voters had to sign at most of the polling places in the county.

Like the books, most of the work in the tablets is done by poll workers. Voters will verify their information — the Poll Pads have the ability to pronounce the information for those with visual disabilities — and sign on a line then swivel the Poll Pad back to the worker.

According to Director of Elections Lisa Rivett, the county has 33 of the Poll Pads funded by CARES Act dollars.

A poll worker can look up a voter by name, address, or date of birth.

When the voter is found, if they are in the wrong place, the Poll Pad will provide directions to their proper precinct. If they were issued an absentee or mail-in ballot, or if the voter is inactive, the Poll Pad will notify the poll worker of how to proceed.

“It tells you exactly what to do,” Rivett said.

The equipment will not allow the voter or worker to move on to a new step until the previous one is complete.

The Pad keeps a running tally of how many voters sign in, and differentiates between those who go on to use the touchscreen voting machines, and those who have to fill out provisional ballots. That leaves the poll workers with a count of how many printed ballots should be in the box and of how many provisional ballots they should have, Rivett said.

The equipment is new, but the process is not.

“None of the paper procedures have changed,” she said.

There will be backup poll books in precincts where the Poll Pads are in use in case something goes awry.

The Poll Pads will not be in use in the precincts in Bear Lake, Clarendon, Cherry Grove, Deerfield, Eldred, Limestone, Southwest, Triumph, nor Watson.

The county has a limited number of the Poll Pads and they are being used at the busiest polling locations, Rivett said.