With the implementation of vote counting scanners at every precinct in North Dakota's 53 counties, voters can expect to see the results on local and statewide election races sooner than ever before.

Burleigh County used Community Access Television to broadcast results as quickly as they came in from the precincts during the primary.

"We will again broadcast the results on CATV 12. That's the fastest anybody can get the results," Burleigh auditor-treasurer Kevin Glatt said. "You can't even call here to the office and get the results faster."

Once the polls are closed, the scanners print out a hard copy of the vote, and the precinct inspector and judges deliver the scanner and hard copy to the auditor. The auditor takes the memory card from the scanner and puts it in the election computer, which automatically tabulates and updates the results.

Glatt said extensive logistic and accuracy testing of the system was conducted over 21/2 weeks before the primary with 29,000 votes run through it, and the tallies came out perfect.

The results from the auditor's office are transmitted to the secretary of state's office. Secretary of State Al Jaeger said that there has been a lot of criticism of the amount of time it takes his office to get the results out to the public.

"On election night, we'll have the results on our Web site as soon as the counts come in from the scanners. They will be transmitted electronically and immediately added to the totals,"Jaeger said.

"The results should appear faster than this office has ever done them before. We're expecting our Web site will have a lot of hits that night and we're prepared for it."

Jaeger said that the results used to be sent to the secretary of state's office by fax. They would then have to be manually entered into the computer system.

"Obviously, there was a time element there that we had to deal with,"Jaeger said.

"Now the results will be automatically posted."

The system was used for the first time in the June primary, and there were few problems with results appearing early in the evening following the closing of polls.

"Since that time, we've fine-tuned and worked out the bugs," Jaeger said. "We're anticipating the posting of results will go very quickly. The new technology makes everybody's job easier, from the auditor's office to our end."

Morton County will post the results on its Web site throughout the evening. The longest wait for both Morton and Burleigh counties is waiting for the equipment to come in from the rural precincts.

"They usually have to do some cleaning up at the polls before they come in," Glatt said.

Results for both counties and state races can also be found at www.bismarcktribune.com.

Absentee ballots are scanned in after the precincts have brought in their results.

They are counted as a separate precinct, Glatt said.

here also is the possibility that some absentee ballots will come in after election day. They will be added as long as they are postmarked Nov. 6.

(Reach reporter Gordon Weixel at 701-250-8255 or gordon.weixel@;bismarcktribune.com.)