Expanding access for voters

The Allen County Election Board's early start on buying handicapped-accessible voting machines shows a welcome commitment to complying with new requirements for making voting easier for voters with disabilities.

The machines won't have to be in place until Jan. 1, 2006, but election officials are wisely moving to tackle the elaborate process involved in purchasing them.

The purchase involves the new Help America Vote Act passed in response to the 2000 election fiasco in Florida. HAVA marks the first time the federal government is working with local governments to assure localities have voting machines intended to bring more accuracy and fairness to the administration of elections.

The arrival of the flat panel machines will herald a new era in voting for several groups of voters with disabilities, especially the blind. For the first time, they will be able to vote without assistance in the same privacy guaranteed other voters. Other advantages include:

Those in wheelchairs will have an easier time fitting under the stand holding the machine, thus easing the difficulty of reading a ballot at a distance from a sitting position.

Voters who have trouble controlling hand and finger movements are likely to find the buttons on the new machines easier to use than the current model.

The machines will also be available to voters without disabilities, thus reducing waiting during periods of heavy voting. The 296 machines planned for purchase, one for each precinct, will increase the number of machines in the county by almost 50 percent.

The county should be able to purchase the 296 machines at no cost to local taxpayers if it moves promptly and follows the proper procedure. But doing so will require an unusual degree of coordination among the Election Board, County Council, county commissioners and Microvote General Corp. of Indianapolis, the machine's vendor.

The cost of $3,350 per machine is expected to be borne by the federal government with money administered by the state. Obtaining the money requires the council and commissioners to pass a joint resolution committing the county to making polling places accessible to voters with disabilities. The council and commissioners must also perform a delicate choreography involving creation of a collateral fund and two line items in the budget and entering into a contract with Microvote. Finally, a reporting mechanism must be created to prove to federal officials that the money is being spent solely to make polling places accessible to voters with disabilities.

Drafters of the HAVA legislation showed unusual sensitivity to local officials by creating a new mandate that appears to have enough federal money to spare local governments new expenses. Nevertheless, the state is distributing the money on a first-come, first-served basis, and 36 counties have already completed the necessary paperwork to submit their applications.

The new voting machines promise to be a major help in achieving the goal of allowing all Americans to vote equally and fairly. County officials can eliminate any doubts about the machines' cost by moving quickly to obtain the federal money.