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That's why the chief clerk of the Lancaster County Election Board is spreading word in advance of the Nov. 3 elections about a twist in this year's ballots.
Voters who opt to use the eScan machines at their polling places will receive two sheets of paper instead of one.
"We want people to know that's not a mistake," Stehman said. "They are supposed to get two sheets."
In a typical election, all the races put to the voters can be listed on a single sheet, using both sides of the sheet.
This year, voters will be asked to consider retaining four judges — two on the Court of Common Pleas, one on the Superior Court and one on the Commonwealth Court.
According to Diane Skilling, deputy registrar for the county Office of Voter Registration, state law stipulates that when paper ballots are employed, judicial retentions must be listed on a sheet separate from the general election ballot.
The Nov. 3 election will be only the second since Lancaster County put its electronic voting system into place in 2006 in which voters have had to deal with judicial retentions.
The first time was in 2007, and Skilling said voters apparently were confused by the two sheets, because many voters scanned only one.
"I'm not sure how many it was," she said. "But as I recall it, it was a significant number — enough that we want to educate voters about it this time around."
Failing to scan both sheets would leave some votes uncast, but it would not cause internal problems with the eScan machines, Skilling said.
"It just raises questions for us about what happened to the sheets when we reconcile the votes," she said.
Stehman said she has asked representatives from the various political parties to spread the word to their members about the ballots and that poll workers have been, and will continue to be, instructed to remind voters as well.
"People are going to be encouraged to fill out all three sides and scan both sheets of paper in the scanners," Stehman said.
Voters who use the eSlate machines should notice nothing different in the way they vote, because the judicial retentions simply will be one of several electronic pages voters will scroll through as they cast their votes.
