The criminal system in the United States is dependent on the ability of small groups of people to carefully listen to both sides of the story, understand how the law applies to what they have heard and then to discuss the merits of a case amongst one another. Those called upon as jurors ultimately decide the guilt or innocence of both civil and criminal defendants.

This system sets us apart from other nations in the world. Here in the United States we are lucky to have the right for our cases to be decided by a group of ordinary people - our peers.

Which doesn't necessarily mean that we all jump for joy when we receive an ominous looking envelope from the court does it? I mean, we aren't all looking for that kind of TIME off of work, are we?

Still the process is important and, as we have already heard today, the growing population puts more pressure on those that work in government.

This definitely holds true for those that oversee the selection of jurors. That scary envelope contains a questionnaire that we are all required to return. It asks us - as potential jurors - to provide accurate contact information and to answer six simple questions.

Each one that is returned must be logged by a staff member as part of the process to determine whether a citizen is qualified for duty.

In 2004, there were sixty thousand (60,000) jury qualification questionnaires mailed out to county residents. In working days, this means that a potential three hundred and thirty three (333) questionnaires are RETURNED every day. In the past, this information was logged by jury clerks. In the really old days, this was entered by hand - using a fountain pen - in large bound journals.

Then, as technology advanced, jury clerks starting using typewriters and then computers, of course. Still, with three hundred and thirty three (333) questionnaires returned everyday, a whole lot of typing was going on. All of those keystrokes increase the possibility for people to make mistakes.

Keeping up with technology, in this case, meant bringing the grocery store to the courthouse. Now each outgoing questionnaire has a bar code affixed to its corner. The bar code links clerks to basic juror contact information. As they are returned, clerks scan each one, double check that addresses and phone numbers are correct and then enter the responses to the six "yes or no" questions.

Bar coding has made it possible for clerks to keep up with their work and reduce the chance for error.