Voting next week at the most active polling places in Greene County should be a lot quicker than it has been in past elections thanks to some new technology. Out of the 79 polling places in Greene County, the 37 busiest ones will have new electronic scanners.  "Oh they're great. It's amazing," exclaimed poll worker Chris Stock. 

People simply present a driver's license, it's scanned and then voters are ready to cast their ballots. Under the old system, poll workers had to pore through books to locate the voters' information and then fill out names, addresses and other pertinent information. Greene County Clerk Richard Struckhoff says the new system checks people in about three times quicker.

"A two person team can probably check in about 500 voters on Election Day and that's a pretty busy day. So if we get 1,500 that would be amazing," Struckhoff explained. The system is already up and working for absentee voters at the old courthouse.

Poll workers who have done this before, including during the last presidential election, say there's a noticeable difference.

"We, at times, had lines all the way down the hall and around the corner. Obviously it was a big election. This one just takes a matter of scanning it and you're done," said Stock. The county tested the system two years ago at two polling places and was thrilled with the results. Come November 2, there will be 70 systems ready to go and the county clerk hopes it's just as successful as the test drive.  "Hopefully on November 3, I'll be loving it even more," said Struckhoff.

Voters don't have to have a driver's license to cast a ballot. All the other accepted forms of identification are still permitted, but they won't be scanned. A state grant funded half of the $100,000 cost for the system; the county covered the remainder of the cost.