Minocqua’s new electronic voter system saw success during Tuesday’s primary election.
The town is among the first places in the Northwoods to implement Badger Books – an electronic system to check in voters on election day.
Badger Books are like oversized iPads, but they do not connect to the internet. Instead, they’re directly connected to a town’s private server, and they’re used to check voters in at the polls.
“The voter will come in and hand me their voter ID. I can scan it, their name comes up, they state their name and address,” says Minocqua Town Clerk Roben Haggart. “Then I just flip it around, they sign and they’re good to go.”
Haggart just rolled out the electronic system during Tuesday’s election in preparation for what she expects to be an even busier election this November.
She says the system is a big time-saver, and it eliminates a lot of human error.
“It takes away a lot of us manually entering things after the election and all the time that takes,” she says.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission recommends Badger Books be used in towns with over 3,000 people.
Haggart says Minocqua is the first town in Oneida and Vilas counties to switch to the electronic system.
