By Kari Lucin, staff writer

Minnesota Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer served cookies, poured coffee and explained how the new assisted voting technology machines worked Friday afternoon at Thorne Crest Retirement Community.

The new AutoMark machines will allow quadriplegic, blind, ill or disabled voters to use the same paper ballots other voters do, and will simply assist them in marking the ballots accurately.

&8220;For many years, the technology has been improving tremendously,&8221; Kiffmeyer said. &8220;There are some things with technology that are really really good and there are other things that are tried and true and we keep. We are keeping our paper ballots.&8221;

Kiffmeyer emphasized the federal government’s mandate for equal treatment for all voters, stating that voters in the Twin Cities and voters in Albert Lea should be able to have the same technology allowing their votes to count.

The AutoMark machines take paper ballots into the machine and use an internal printer to mark the ballot. The ballot can be magnified to make it easier to see, and the machines include a tool that will allow quadriplegics to vote by blowing air. People who cannot see well enough to vote will be able to get an audio reading of the ballot from the machine rather than another person.

&8220;When the machine is set up, it is set up in a way that faces a back wall, and it has a privacy screen around it so that only you, the voter, can see what you are doing,&8221; Kiffmeyer said. &8220;If you want another person to mark the ballot for you, that choice is still yours.

Every polling place will have at least one AutoMark machine, funded by the $3 billion the federal government set aside for that purpose. Minnesota alone received $35 million for the machines, which cost around $6,000 apiece, including installation.

Kiffmeyer finished her presentation and offered absentee ballot applications, a Minnesota voter’s guide and voter registration cards to anyone at Thorne Crest who wanted them. She even encouraged Thorne Crest residents to have a look at the sample ballots for the September primary elections on her official Web page.

&8220;I thought it was very interesting, and it was wonderful to have them all the same throughout the country,&8221; said Thorne Crest resident Jeanette Olson of the new voting machines.