County elects for voting-machine advice
Virginia firm will get $8,300 to help system for 2006.

By Scott Kraus
Of The Morning Call 
Mar 26, 2004

 Northampton County has hired a Virginia-based consultant to help put new electronic voting machines in place by the spring 2006 primary.

Chief Registrar Linda Arcury said the county will pay Election System Acquisition & Management Services of Glen Allen, Va., $8,300 to help in the ion and implementation of new machines.

''We would like to do it the right way,'' Arcury said.

The county uses lever-based machines, and must replace them by 2006 if it wants to qualify for federal grants under the Help America Vote Act of 2002.

In the past, Arcury and Election Commission Chairman Charles Dertinger have put the total cost of outfitting the county with new machines at $1.5 million to $2 million, but they backed away from that Thursday.

Dertinger said the final cost will depend on which system the county s, how much federal aide it qualifies for and the cost of the software that tallies the votes.

The county already has formed a ion committee made up of members of the voter registration office, a representative of the League of Women Voters, the county's information technology manager, a judge of elections and a representative of the county purchasing office.

Hugh J. Gallagher, managing director of Election System Acquisition & Management, said he plans to start by helping the county issue a request for proposals from voting machine manufacturers.

Gallagher said the county will then narrow its ions and bring the finalists in for a rigorous two-day interview process that will include product demonstrations and a question and answer session.

Two finalists would be reviewed during at least two public hearings.

The machines also will be run through a test during a primary or special election, and the ion committee will present a recommendation to the county's Election Commission.

Election Commission member Irene Gilbert asked Gallagher whether he recommends the county purchase a machine with a paper backup system that would serve as a physical record that could be used to verify the electronic count.

The paper backup has been advocated by groups that allege electronic machines are vulnerable to vote tampering.

Gallagher said he doesn't recommend that, because in his opinion, the electronic machines are accurate and secure, in part because the county has plenty of procedural safeguards in place to guarantee accuracy.

The machines and vote-counting computers won't be connected to the Internet, he said, insulating them from remote hackers.

''Security is more than the system, it is the process and procedures and the people we have surrounding them,'' Gallagher said.

Arcury said Gallagher would typically charge $20,000 for his firm's services, but his company is trying to get its foot in the door in Pennsylvania, and Northampton County is its first client in the state.