County commission OKs agreement to buy 115 new touch-screen voting machines

Jane Moorman News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jmoorman@news-bulletin.com

Valencia County voters will be using new touch-screen voting machine at the municipal elections on March 2.

Commission Chairman Gary Daves signed a lease payment agreement with the State Department of Finance Administration to purchase 115 AVC Edge machines at the Feb. 4 meeting despite protests by Commissioners Alicia Aguilar and Al Padilla and audience members.

"This is an administrative action," Daves explained. "We approved a resolution in July to purchase these machines."

County Clerk Tina Gallegos said that normally this document is handled administratively and doesn't require second approval by the commission.

"But, during the second December meeting, the commission required the issue to come back before the document was signed," Gallegos said.

Aguilar wanted the action tabled until the 2004-05 budget is designed to ensure there would be money for the loan payments.

The county still owes $46,000 on the current machines it owns. Gallegos said that money will be paid in three years, with annual payments of $15,600.

"We have received a 10-year loan from the state's voting- machine revolving fund for $518,668 for the new machines," Gallegos said. "This will add $51,866.80 to our payment to bring the payment to $67,466.80 which is $26,134.80 more then our December 2003 payment.

County Manager Art Castillo said he had talked with Gallegos about the additional $26,134.80 not being covered by general funds but from her clerk's equipment fund.

Rio Communities resident Robert J. Boram argued that the county was purchasing machines that are not certified for Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requirements.

"Two weeks ago, I was at a certification meeting and discovered no voting-machine companies have received approval because the requirements are still being established," Boram said of the federal law that requires polling places to have voting machines for visually handicapped voters by 2006.

"You haven't had any problems with the current machines," he said. "You have done something that was not needed."

Gallegos responded by telling the commission that the machines do, in fact, meet the HAVA requirements that are currently written.

"If any revisions occur in the law, to where we have to make changes in the programming, we have personnel who will be able to do that," she added.

Boram said that because the county purchased these machines before the HAVA requirements were certified, the county would not be eligible for federal funds to pay for 25 of the machines.

Gallegos said after the meeting that the county will still be eligible for HAVA funds in the future. "We won't lose our rights to any federal money by purchasing the machines now."

Aguilar moved that the purchase be postponed, but the motion died because of a tied vote. Aguilar and Padilla voted yes, while Commissioner Mary Andersen and Daves voted no. The commission passed a resolution at its Jan. 6 meeting that allows the chairman to vote on all issues, not just tied votes.

Commissioner Paul Trujillo abstained, saying that he was not convinced either way.

Andersen pointed out that the commission had signed a resolution that Gallegos took to the state and received a loan.

"We made a contract with the state when we signed that resolution. The state has purchased the machines on our behalf. We are honor-bound to go forward," Anderson said.

Gallegos said in an interview after the meeting that the machines were purchased at this time because the county would save $2,000 per machine. "But to receive the savings, we had to purchase the machines before the end of 2003. Which we did."

The county clerk said the main reason the election bureau purchased the machines at this time is the software of the new machines communicates with the absentee ballot optic scanners, "which will make it easier for the election board to report the results on election night."

Gallegos expects to receive the machines by the end of February or first part of March.