Lawmakers want more answers on vote machines
Questions linger over security, overall efficiency

By LEO SHANE III
Gazette Columbus Bureau

COLUMBUS A pair of senators want Secretary of State Ken Blackwell to slow down his efforts to get counties their new electronic voting machines, citing lingering questions over security and compatibility.

Blackwell responded Tuesday by charging his critics with deliberately delaying election reform by stalling his efforts to have the machines in place by November.

He warned against Ohio repeating Florida's 2000 presidential election, where George Bush's victory came down to numerous questionable punch-card ballots.

"This is nothing to be playing petty politics with," Blackwell said. "If this is delayed and we're caught up in the mire of political controversy ... the folks advocating for this delay will be causing the problem."

But Sen. Jeff Jacobson, R-Dayton, has asked his colleagues to refuse final approval of the machines next month because officials still have too many security questions, including how voters can verify whether their ions were accurately recorded.

"It does not make sense to rush to do this wrong," he said. "It seems to me we have enough questions that we should have the answers to, instead of just promises."

All but six of Ohio's 88 counties have signed on to receive new electronic voting machines, to be paid for with federal money set aside after the 2000 election.

Currently 71 counties use punch card ballots similar to the troublesome ones used in Florida four years ago. Federal officials have mandated those types of systems be d.

Blackwell will meet with lawmakers Thursday to defend the new machines' readiness for this fall's election, and to ask lawmakers to give final approval next month to the $106 million contract for their purchase.

Even with that approval he estimates only about half of the punch-card counties will be able to implement the new technology by November. Without that approval, he said, all of them will be left with the old system.

"The indictment of the punch card system is not mine it's the community's," he said. "Our goal was to make sure as many voters as possible didn't have to repeat the punch-card experience."

But Jacobson and Sen. Teresa Fedor, D-Toledo, said they're reluctant to pay for the machines before their suppliers prove that concerns over tampering and hacking are settled.

In December, Blackwell asked federal officials to give Ohio an extra 13 months to put the new voting stations in place because of those security concerns. He said he is confident they will be fixed in the next few months.

"But the legislature shouldn't give that last payment until all the security issues are fixed," Fedor said. "When you put your vote into that electronic touch screen, how do you know it's been counted? When was the last time your computer crashed?"

Blackwell called those arguments off-base and warned that the entire process could be taken out of Ohio's hands by a federal judge.

In 2002, the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit against four counties charging their punch-card system unfairly discriminates against minorities. Further delays in putting in the machines, Blackwell said, could prompt action from the judge hearing the case.

In August Democrats blasted Blackwell for allowing Diebold Inc. to supply machines to county elections officials, after that company's CEO pledged to help deliver Ohio to President Bush in this year's presidential election.