Counties shun new voting machines 
01/16/04
Mark Naymik and Julie Carr Smyth
Plain Dealer Reporters 
A group of Ohio's largest counties, including Cuyahoga, refused Thursday to
meet a state deadline for ing new voting machines until Secretary of
State Ken Blackwell can guarantee that the machines are secure.
 
At the same time, more than half the counties that were required to a
voting-machine maker chose the company whose security problems have gained it
the most scrutiny nationally: Diebold Election Systems. The Canton-based
company has landed more than $31 million in contracts statewide.
 
The large counties protesting - including Democrat-dominated Cuyahoga,
Republican-heavy Hamilton, and Montgomery - said too many security and cost-related
questions remain about the new systems.

Among their chief concerns: 57 separate security risks found in the machines
during an independent review that Blackwell commissioned, which have not all
been fixed yet; the machines' long-term costs; and whether the machines should
produce a paper receipt.
 
"Those security issues need to be worked out and the paper-trail issue needs
to be clarified before we will make a decision," said Tom Coyne, chairman of
Cuyahoga's elections board.
 
Blackwell has said that he is confident the security flaws can be corrected
by the voting-machine makers and that his office will be responsible for making
sure they are fixed.
 
"Those issues will be corrected or that vendor will not operate in Ohio,"
Carlo LoParo, a spokesman for Blackwell, said Thursday.
 
That promise is not good enough for all elections officials, particularly in
some larger counties where elections are more complex than in small, rural
counties - and local officials might be left holding the political bag if
something goes wrong.
 
"While, as you, we believe those security flaws can be corrected, until we
are advised that they have been, we are not comfortable ing any of the
vendors," Hamilton County officials wrote in a recent letter to Blackwell.
 
Still, 62 of 71 counties participating in the statewide upgrade from punch
cards met Thursday's deadline, allowing Blackwell's office to proceed with
contracts for nearly 15,000 machines statewide.
 
Diebold secured contracts with 40 counties, representing about 10,000
machines. Its competitors won much less: - Election Systems & Software (11), Hart
Intercivic (seven), and Sequoia Voting Systems (four).
 
So the indecision of some of Ohio's most populous counties remains
significant. Uncommitted counties control about 12,300 machines statewide.
 
Seventeen counties were not required to meet Thursday's deadline because they
already replaced their paper-ballot systems. Several counties narrowed their
choices to two vendors or systems.
 
All four voting-machine makers were short-listed by Blackwell to compete for
a piece of the $161 million set aside by the federal government for upgrading
Ohio's voting systems.
 
LoParo said state officials will meet with each undecided county to try to
resolve their concerns.
 
LoParo would not say how long Blackwell will wait, or whether Blackwell would
choose a voting system for these counties. But he emphasized that federal law
holds Blackwell's office responsible for making sure that the paper-ballot
systems are replaced by January 2006.
 
"We will ask the counties to make a ion before we consider any other
action," LoParo said.
 
He said Thursday's deadline was set to allow the state time to finalize the
contracts and to give vendors time to produce the machines before the election
deadlines.
 
To reach these Plain Dealer reporters:
mnaymik@plaind.com, 216-999-4800
jsmyth@plaind.com, 1-800-228-8272
 
© 2004 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.