Blackwell tells 5 counties he'll pick vote machines
Notice angers committee examining security of electronic method

By JIM PROVANCE
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU

COLUMBUS - Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell has told five counties that have yet to new voting machines that he will make the choice for them next week.

The letter angered members of a legislative panel examining the security of electronic voting, escalating an already tense feud over who should make decisions about how Ohioans will vote in the post-Florida, 2000, era.

"The train continues to leave the station," said state Rep. Peter Ujvagi (D., Toledo), a member of the Joint Committee on Ballot Security. "Every time we try to pull it back into the station, the secretary of state seems to want to push it through."

The legislatively dominated Ohio Controlling Board has held up release of $128 million in federal funds for the purchase of the machines while the joint committee holds hearings into whether computerized voting could be tampered with or fail to accurately record votes.

"Accusations are being leveled without proof of a single instance [of election fixing] actually occurring," Blackwell spokesman Carlo LoParo said. "So instead they suggest our elections officials are corrupt or incompetent. Vendors don't program the machines. Election officials program them and ensure their integrity."

Mr. Blackwell sent a letter to the boards of election in Hamilton, Montgomery, Clinton, Highland, and Preble counties, all of which use punch-card ballots like those called into question in the 2000 presidential election.

The secretary of state ed vendors manufacturing variations of touch-screen and optical-scan voting machines and asked counties to choose from that menu. Optical-scan devices use paper ballots read electronically.

Although not included in the ultimatum, Mr. Blackwell expects soon to break the Lucas County Board of Election's stalemate over which machine to deploy. The board picked Canton-based Diebold, Inc., as its vendor but tied 2-2 when it came to choosing which type of Diebold machine to use.

A number of witnesses argued that the touch-screen machines should include some paper system allowing voters to ensure the machine properly recorded their vote.

"Electronic machines can't recount," said Richard Eastman of Greene County. "They can only repeat what they said before."

The contracts Mr. Blackwell has entered into with three vendors do not call for paper "voter-verifiable audit trails." Michael Kerr of the industry's Information Technology Association of America told the committee such a system has not received federal certification and would add to the cost and complexity of the machines.

Jim Dixon, vice president of the American Association of People with Disabilities, urged the committee not to allow a dispute of paper receipts to delay new voting machines.

"Everybody wants more security," he said. "We need more security, But we can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." Mr. Dixon is blind, and headphones attached to a touch-screen machine would allow the blind to vote without assistance. Ohio faces a Jan. 1, 2006, deadline to comply with the federal Help American Vote Act. Mr. Blackwell hopes to convert some counties to electronic voting as early as the August special elections.