NEWARK The Licking County Board of Elections, facing a state-mandated deadline of April 15, decided Thursday it is not ready to pick a company to supply its voter registration system.

The board heard a report from Chad Fuller, chairman of the voter registration committee, on the three companies being considered Diebold Voting Systems, of McKinney, Texas; Sequoia Voting Systems, Inc., of Oakland, Calif., and NTS Data Services, LLC, of Niagara Falls, N.Y.

Electronic voting systems are required by the federally-mandated Help America Vote Act of 2002.

Fuller recommended against considering NTS because its procurement cost was $141,074, compared to $84,343 for Sequoia and $38,363 for Diebold.

Comparing Sequoia and Diebold, Fuller said Sequoia is clearly the better choice, but the county is unable to choose the compatible Sequoia electronic voting machines to go along with the Sequoia voter registration system.

The board had already chosen Sequoia to supply its machines, but Secretary of State Kenneth J. Blackwell and Sequoia could not agree on final contract terms. All counties which ed Sequoia's machines must make another choice.

The decisions on the voter registration system and the voting machines should be made together, Fuller said. The best options, Fuller said, appear to be a Sequoia system and Hart InterCivic machines or Diebold system and machines.

The concern about using two different companies is compatibility between the system and machines. The concern with using Diebold for both, according to Fuller's report, is Sequoia has a superior product, with more security.

The county is required to choose machines by June 1.

"Sequoia and Hart, if those can be married together, I believe the two of them together would be the best thing," Fuller said. "We just recently gave consideration to Hart. ... We say it deserves more exploration."

Mike King, chairman of the elections board and Licking County Democratic Party chairman, said even if the board had made a decision on Thursday, the system would not be in operation by the state's deadline of June 15.

"If we make a decision tomorrow, we have no intention of springing a new system on people in a presidential year," King said. "Our goal is to start training the first of the year for the May primary (of 2005)."

Reporter Kent Mallett can be reached at 328-8545 or kmallett@nncogannett.com