Use of DREs in Iowa’s 2006 Primary Election

Prepared by Carole Simmons, Ph.D.

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Background: Our main objective in doing this survey was to determine what percentage of Iowa voters used a Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) touchscreen in the June 2006 primary. Each county in Iowa uses one of the following three types of voting systems at its polling places:

DREs only (other than absentee ballots).
A blend of paper ballots and DREs. Voters may opt to use either type of system.
Paper ballots only. Ballots are counted by Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS), and Ballot Marking Devices (BMDs) are used for accessibility.

Methods and Results: Three types of survey questions and responses were used, to match the voting system of each county in question. The survey was conducted by email, with the exception of a small number of counties contacted by telephone.

For the 19 counties using only DREs, we asked

How many voters took part in the primary in your county?
How many absentee ballots were cast?
Were the absentee ballots counted by a scanner, by DRE, or by hand?

We had responses from ten of these counties. In Clayton County, absentee ballots were counted on DREs; we considered these to be votes on a DRE. All other nine counties used a scanner to count their absentee ballots. Averaging across the ten counties, the DRE usage rate was 90 percent. (The nine counties missing are Appanoose, Clay, Fayette, Jackson, Keokuk, Lucas, Plymouth, Warren, and Wayne.)

DRE/DRE Cos.	#Absentee	#DRE	Total	%DRE	notes
Poweshiek	310	1342	1652	81%
Union	205	983	1188	83%
Monroe	118	568	686	83%
Ringgold	95	716	811	88%
Mahaska	143	1123	1266	89%
Mitchell	71	691	762	91%
Marion	113	1484	1597	93%
Winnebago	39	732	771	95%
Worth	18	517	535	97%
Clayton	(225)	1775	1775	100%	225 absentee ballots counted on DRE
		9931	11043	90%

Table 1. Data for DRE-only Counties

In the 59 Blended counties using Optical Scan and DREs, we asked for the total numbers who voted using 1) paper ballots, and 2) DRE touchscreen machines. We had responses from 43 of these counties. Table 2 presents data for these counties, arranged in order of DRE usage rate. As can be seen, this rate varied widely from county to county, from a low of 1.7 percent to a high of 74.9 percent.

County	No. Paper	No. DRE	Total	%DRE
Scott	13928	236	14164	1.7%
Audubon	604	19	623	3.0%
Decatur	773	40	813	4.9%
Dickinson	1195	68	1263	5.4%
Mills	1147	80	1227	6.5%
Lee	2766	250	3016	8.3%
Winneshiek	2554	274	2828	9.7%
Ida	692	75	767	9.8%
Des Moines	3299	432	3731	11.6%
Jefferson	961	135	1096	12.3%
Linn	10533	1627	12160	13.4%
Johnson	9564	2342	11906	19.7%
Cherokee	736	189	925	20.4%
Black Hawk	8204	2330	10534	22.1%
Clarke	411	197	608	32.4%
Clinton	1925	996	2921	34.1%
Madison	1167	634	1801	35.2%
Davis	635	376	1011	37.2%
Page	429	388	817	47.5%
Sioux	2364	2146	4510	47.6%
Howard	349	317	666	47.6%
Shelby