NATCHEZ &8212;The new touch-screen voting machines were tested all day Tuesday in preparation for their first real election by voters next Tuesday.

Though some of the election commissioners who worked on the machines were glad to finally see an update, others were concerned about the public&8217;s response to more modern technology.

Three district election commissioners for Adams County were testing the new touch-screen voting systems that are to be used on Tuesday, June 6 for the Democratic Senate primary elections.

Last year in August, the county board of supervisors voted 4-0 to join 75 other counties in purchasing the machines from Diebold Election Systems as part of the Help Americans Vote Act, or HAVA, passed in Congress in 2002 which took effect Jan. 1.

To date 77 of the 82 counties in Mississippi are using these machines.

Mitch Ballard, District 5 Election Commissioner, is optimistic about these new voting machines.

&8220;Well for starters, with the majority of the counties getting on board, it is helping Mississippi become more centralized in its voting process,&8221; Ballard said. &8220;I also think in the long-run security will be better.&8221;

Although the voting machines have online capabilities, the election commissioners feel that running the machines offline will eliminate voter fraud possibilities.

There is also less of a chance of the screens freezing up or being infected by a computer virus.

Ballard also predicts shorter lines on Election Day due to the machines.

When people come to the precincts, the poll workers will look up their name as usual but instead of a ballot they&8217;ll receive a voter access card.

The voters will slide the card into the machine where the ballot, already encoded in the card by the poll workers, will appear on the screen.

Using the touch screen, the voters can then choose their candidates, cast their ballots and eject the card to give back to the poll workers who will reset it for the next election.

Katye Dukes, District 4 Election Commissioner, is more skeptical than Ballard.

She feels that the elderly, hearing and seeing impaired, illiterate and the handicapped will have more trouble with the new machines than with the older ones.

&8220;I think that older people are intimidated by the use of computers to cast their votes,&8221; Dukes said.

However, Ballard said the machines are equipped to accommodate people with those problems.

&8220;Each machine comes with a set of headphones and a numbered key pad so that the blind, deaf or illiterate can hear and choose their candidate using the pad,&8221; Ballard said.

&8220;Also, on the touch screen there is a screen-enlargement feature.&8221;

There is even a way to remove the screens from their stands to take them out to a parking lot, for example, so handicapped voters don&8217;t have to leave their vehicles.

Circuit Clerk M.L. &8220;Binkey&8221; Vines has researched the voting machines and run into some problems.

Vines, who has one of the machines in his office, has had problems with the voter access card, and with some of the noises the machine makes.

&8220;Sometimes when I used the card it would deny my access to the touch screen because the card had a fingerprint or it was dirty,&8221; Vines said.

Vines also noticed the machine made a sound during the voting process that sounded similar to the old machine when it tallied the votes.

&8220;I have a feeling that the people will think that their votes have been cast and will walk away once they here this sound,&8221; Vines said.

A voter must wait and press the &8220;cast ballot&8221; button on the screen before they are done.

To educate potential voters, Vines is starting an internship program this summer where his interns will go to public places around the city show people how the machines work.

&8220;I also think that the poll workers should be educated before we put these machines in full use,&8221; Vines said.

The touch-screen voting machines also have three different functions to show that the votes have been tallied.

There is an internal memory feature, similar to a computer&8217;s hard-drive, an external memory, like a floppy disk, and a verification of the ballot on paper.

Ballard said this would ensure the votes could not be lost in case of a catastrophe, such as a storm.