The Coweta

County Commission got an up-close look Tuesday at the future of elections

in Georgia.

Russ Madison,

Jr., who works with voter education, appeared before the board Tuesday

and showed the commission the new electric voting machines that will be

used in the November elections.

The machines

are manufactured by Diebold, which has been in the security business for

years, Madison said.

Diebold was

also one of the pioneers in ATM technology and was awarded the $50 million

contract to outfit all the state's counties with electronic machines by

this fall, he added.

Madison set

up a machine and said voters would register at the polls like they have

in the past. After the registration, the voter would be handed a card,

similar to an ATM card, that unlocks the voting machine.

Once the machine

is unlocked, a screen appears, and voters touch the candidate of their

choice.

Madison said

the voter has opportunities to change his mind before the vote is cast,

and the technology will not allow a voter to vote for two candidates in

the same race.

The machines

are not networked, so there is no danger of computer hackers destroying

the information in the machines, he said.

There is also

an audio option for blind voters.

"This

will allow for the first time those voters to vote totally by themselves

without any assistance," he said.

To show how

easy the system is to use, Madison asked one of the commissioners to cast

a vote.

Commissioner

Lawrence Nelms tried out the system and proclaimed it very user-friendly.

Residents will

use the old paper ballots in the August primary, but use the new touch

screens in November.