Blackwell likely to pick county's voting method

By Roy Wood
Post staff reporter

Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell was expected to a voting machine system for Hamilton County possibly as early as today, despite concerns from the county's board of elections over the system's accuracy, security and cost.

Blackwell's action comes despite a last-ditch effort from the elections board Tuesday night to gain more time to a voting machine vendor on its own.

"The Hamilton County Board of Elections and its staff recommends that in light of the fact that the voting machines proposed by the vendors have not yet been certified and because the board has not completed its field investigation and due diligence no decision should be made at this time," board members said in a letter to Blackwell.

In the letter, the board said the board staff and Republican board members Michael Barrett and Todd Ward recommended the Hart InterCivic voting system. The board's other two members, Chairman Timothy Burke and V. Daniel Radford, both Democrats, were not prepared to make a recommendation.

"Understanding the work that our staff has done, we were reluctant to make a choice," Barrett said today. But if Blackwell was going to make a choice based on what the board believes is incomplete investigation, "we wanted him to know what the best system was," Barrett added. "That's a lot of money to be spent, and it will ultimately be paid by the taxpayer."

The issue dates back to the controversy over the 2000 presidential election in Florida, in which uncertainities over whether punch-card ballots had been properly tabulated raised questions over the state's vote count which in turn tipped the election to George W. Bush.

To avoid similar problems with future elections, Congress approved the Help America Vote Act of 2002, aimed at replacing punch-card and lever machine voting systems, like those still used in Hamilton County, with electronic systems.

When the act was passed, Ohio received $155 million in federal funds and Blackwell's office ed qualified vendors. Individual county boards of elections were to pick from the list of potential vendors by Jan. 15.

Concerns over the available systems, however, prompted Hamilton County and four others to delay makiing their ions. Last week, Blackwell issued a directive to Hamilton, Montgomery, Clinton, Highland and Preble counties, saying if they did not vendors by 10 a.m. today, the state would make the choice.

Counties that did not use the vendor and voting systems ed would not be eligible for federal funds to pay for new machines, Blackwell's March 23 directive said. "We have given more than adequate time for the county boards of elections to make this decision."

The state Controlling Board on March 8, meanwhile, put off a vote to release the federal money for new voting machines to give lawmakers more time to study security issues. The controlling board is expected to take up the issue again Monday.

Although Blackwell says the security issues have been resolved, critics contend the electronic machines could be subject to tampering and should be able to produce a paper receipt.

The federal government required the new machines to be installed in all 88 counties by the Nov. 2 election, but Ohio was granted an extension. More than half of Ohio counties are to have the machines by that time, with the rest expected to have them in place by next year.

John Williams, Hamilton County elections board director, said today forcing the county to enter a contract for machines before it has fully checked out the machines and the vendor to the board's satisfaction "is kind of a (backward) way to do business.

"Everyone would be well served to do this thing right."

Williams, in a March 25 letter to Blackwell, pointed out several issues beyond local control that make officials hesitant to a vendor. Among them were that no contracts had been signed between the state and any of the vendors, and the secretary of state had not officially certified any vendor.

Moreover, the new law amounts to an unfunded federal mandate, because local governments must pay for additional machines over and above the state's ratio of one machine per 200 voters, Williams said. That could end up costing Hamilton County nearly $3 million, local elections officials say.