New voting machines will be on display in Union County
2004 elections: Punch cards will be used, but new equipment must be in place in 2006

By Pam Tharp Correspondent

LIBERTY, Ind. Picking a new voting system to comply with all the federal rules is like shooting at a moving target, Union County election officials say.

Finding affordable equipment that meets all the requirements of the Americans With Disabilities Act and has been certified by the state is no easy task in a county that hasn't bought new voting equipment in 30 years.

Union County's 5,000 voters will vote with the outlawed punch-card system one more time in 2004 but must have new equipment by 2006 to comply with the Help America Vote Act.

The Union County Election Board has arranged for five vendors to demonstrate equipment to the county commissioners, county council and the public Thursday afternoon in the courthouse.

The federal government is supplying states with $4 billion to replace voting equipment after punch card problems were revealed in the 2000 presidential election in Florida. Indiana counties expect to spend about $80 million upgrading their voting equipment and many have already started. Only 18 Indiana counties will vote with punch cards this year.

Waiting, though, might have been a good idea. It's given vendors more time to work out problems, election board member Dorothy Ray said.

All of Thursday's vendors are on the attorney general's procurement list, election board member Dianna Crouse said. Other counties' difficulties in ing certified equipment has caused Union County officials to be extra cautious, Crouse said.

The touchscreen firmware - software built into a computer - for Wayne County's new voting machines from Election Systems and Software wasn't approved in Indiana when voters in Richmond cast ballots last fall. The equipment since has been certified.

Touchscreen technology eliminates ballot box stuffing, but the new technology brings its own challenges. Computer experts are concerned that hackers can alter programs to change an election's outcome. Systems that don't provide a paper backup can't actually be recounted.

"There are a lot of bugs in all of it," Ray said. "This is just a start but we have to get started looking."

Counties are being reimbursed at about two-thirds of their cost for the new equipment from federal funds allotted to counties to upgrade equipment, Crouse said.

"We don't want to wait too long so (the state) doesn't run out of money. We're told the county should borrow money from the bank (to pay for the equipment) and not take it out of county funds. We need the best negotiator we can get because companies do make deals," Crouse said.

Finding polling places that meet strict handicapped accessibility rules is also a challenge, officials said. For the town election last fall the 4-H Building was the designated handicapped poll, but even its door isn't as wide as the rules require, Ray said.