Diebold machines elected in Summit

Green company ratified to provide the electronic voting devices in county

By Julie Wallace and Erika D. Smith Beacon Journal staff writers

Coming not-so-soon to a polling place near you: electronic voting machines courtesy of Green-based Diebold Inc.

On Tuesday, the Summit County Board of Elections acting on a directive Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell handed down last week ratified Diebold as its machine of choice.

The unanimous vote makes Summit the 44th county in Ohio to Diebold's machines to replace outdated punch-card or lever systems.

Diebold was one of four vendors Blackwell's office certified for consideration by Ohio's 88 counties. Since that time, Sequoia Voting Systems ped out after it couldn't negotiate a contract with the state.

Twelve counties have ed Election Systems & Software, and seven have ed HartInterCivic. The remaining counties use an earlier version of an electronic voting system (that will have to be replaced) or have not made a ion, according to Blackwell's office.

The Summit board told Blackwell's office that Diebold or Election Systems & Software would work with its computer system. It favored Diebold, but left the decision to Blackwell.

The cost of the machines for Summit will be nearly $5 million. Federal money allocated through the Help America Vote Act that Congress approved after the voting debacle marred the presidential election three years ago will pay for the system.

The county is expecting to incur some extra costs associated with the switch: $106,000 for the storage carts needed for the machines and as much as $300,000 to buy 100 extra units.

The new machines probably won't make their debut at an election until next year. Deputy Director John Schmidt, a Democrat who examined all the machines and favored Diebold's, said a spring rollout would be best avoiding the heavy turnout expected in November's presidential election.

That delay isn't entirely a local decision. Ohio had hoped to deploy new voting machines by the Aug. 3 special election, but rising skepticism in the state's General Assembly has thrown that into question.

Legislators have been meeting all month to sort out accusations about the machines' security. They also are weighing whether to force all new machines to spit out a paper receipt.

Today, legislators will test machines that do that.

Officials from California startup AccuPoll Inc. will show off their paper-producing products in Columbus. Diebold, ES&S and Hart InterCivic will demonstrate their machines in another room in the Statehouse.

The latter three companies insist their machines are secure and accurate with or without a paper trail. But the state Controlling Board has put off a $133 million spending request to buy the machines until the issue is resolved.

``We're certainly hoping for the opportunity to deploy as soon as possible,'' said David Bear, a Diebold spokesman.

James Lee, a spokesman for Blackwell, said it isn't likely that the state will be voting on electronic machines in November. ``But certainly, a much higher percentage of Ohioans will be voting on the newer machines than are currently using them,'' he said.

Joe Hutchinson Jr., a Republican member of the Summit Board of Elections, said he has heard all the questions raised about security and even has checked a Web site that decries all of the machines as vulnerable.

``I have to assume that when the professionals we have on staff at the secretary of state's office tell us it's safe, it will be,'' Hutchinson said. ``I assume they had the same anxiety when they went from paper ballots to punch cards.''

Before certifying the companies, including Sequoia, a state-ordered review identified 57 security issues among the four voting machine models. Blackwell's office told the companies to fix the problems and put together a report by April 1.

Democrat Russ Pry, a member of the elections board, said he's confident the security concerns are being addressed and that after the initial hurdles are overcome, voters will appreciate the ease of the new system.

``My position all the way along on the security concerns was that I don't know how you get on (Blackwell's) approved list without the security concerns being resolved,'' Pry said.