New election machines generating concerns

 

by Regina Purcell, Staff Writer

Douglas County's clerk, in charge of the 2004 election, joins others Friday for an emergency meeting about the controversial touch-screen voting systems.

All 17 Nevada county clerks will meet in Carson City to try and get a handle on how to conduct this year's elections with a number of unknowns still hanging in the balance.

"I don't know if there is a perfect answer," Douglas County Clerk Barbara Reed said. "We are so far into the election cycle this year.

"My greatest concern, which has always been, is assuring the accuracy, the privacy, the security of whatever type of system we end up using. I want to be certain I have a high comfort level."

The Nevada Board of Examiners approved Tuesday the contract to buy more than 4,500 Sequoia-brand electronic voting machines with a $9.3 million price tag. Reed said all but the money needed for Clark County systems will be paid by the federal government under the Help America Vote Act.

President Bush signed HR 3295, the Help America Vote Act in October, 2002, creating new mandates for state and local government, including a 2006 deadline to switch to touch screen voting systems.

Reed said Secretary of State Dean Heller upped that decertifying the punch cards that were the only type used in Douglas County in recent years. Reed said the changes stem from the now infamous voting problems related to punch card ballots in several Florida counties during the 2000 presidential election.

"It just dominoed (nationwide)," she said. "We no longer have a choice in Nevada. If we did, I would like to use punch cards."

Heller also mandated that the Sequoia systems have a paper trail one of the more controversial problems associated with touch screens.

"You know, it's misleading because all electronic systems have had a paper trail," Reed said. "I think voters are asking for a different type of what has been available."

Reed said the Sequoia systems have a Verified Voter Receipt, a separate unit that attaches to the screen and produces a sort of adding machine tape indicating the votes cast.

Those separate units have not been OK'd by the feds, Reed said. Heller has said he wants the printing units before the new electronic machines are used statewide. If the federal government can't certify the printing units, the contract approved Tuesday contains language to let the state hire experts to do the job at Sequoia's expense.

There have also been some complaints about the Sequoia systems and how they interface with the Windows software, although Reed said she didn't know the specifics. Reed said if they can't get the printers certified and installed in time for the 2004 elections, the contract contains a Plan B, in which Sequoia must supply optical scan machines. Reed and the other 17 county clerks have several concerns, especially that none of them had access to the contract before it was approved and none of the clerks were able to provide input at Tuesday's meeting. She said the agenda item addressing the contract was pulled, then put back on the schedule earlier than expected.

"We were all en route," Reed said. "Not one of us had seen the contract and we are the ones responsible for conducting elections so there is some concern in that.

"There are some concerns about the date of delivery. There are some scheduled to be delivered as late as Aug. 6 and to me that's unbelievable. It's not acceptable."

Reed also said Sequoia Voting Systems have not met with any clerk since the contract was awarded in December.

"At this point I don't know what we are doing," she said. "Another concern is the dead date of May 15 to decide whether to use the electronic or optical scan (systems). "I know we will use optical scan with the absentee ballots. We may end up using it for the primary and general elections. I don't know."

Initially, Reed requested 200 touch screens for Douglas County. She was approved for 160.

"I had to fight," she said. "We were down to 130."

Regardless, Reed said the county will end up paying about $15,000 more, at least, to accommodate the new touch screen systems. She will soon bring to the Douglas County Commissioners a request to rent space to store the incoming machines.

At the emergency meeting Friday, Reed is optimistic county clerks will come to some sort of agreement on how to conduct this year's election.

"But that doesn't mean it will make any difference to the state," she said.

Sequoia is an elections systems company whose primary business is the development and support of elections database systems and the production of election equipment.