Disabled voters to cast ballots with new system

Officials looking for compliant machines that still use paper

By TOM REEDY / Denton Record-Chronicle

Denton County is shopping for touch-screen voting machines to help disabled voters in order to comply with the Help America Vote Act.

But instead of machines that also count the votes, county Elections Administrator Don Alexander said he's looking at one that simply marks the paper ballots the county uses now.

The county could avoid the controversy surrounding voting machines that don't use paper ballots if it were to opt for the Auto-Mark, a machine that complies with the law but still uses a paper ballot, he said.

"All this controversy about the voter-verifiable paper ballot is eliminated with this machine because you've still got your ballot, and when it comes time for a recount, you've got the paper ballot to do a recount with," he said.

Some national voting experts have said that paperless voting cast on computers may lead to voting totals that are unverifiable if contested.

Voters now mark a paper ballot that is tabulated by an optical scanner.

Because the tabulating system complies with the law and is highly reliable, there's no reason to replace them, he said.

Tom Eschberger, representative for Elections Systems and Software, the company that makes the machine, recently gave a demonstration for Mr. Alexander and District 63 state Rep. Mary Denny, chairwoman of the House Committee on Elections.

The machine has a headphone jack for blind voters, instructions in Braille, and touch pad buttons so the voter can use shapes instead of touching the screen, he said.

It can also magnify the ballot image for low-vision voters, change to black and white for colorblind voters, and has volume controls for blind voters with hearing impairment.

It also has a sip and puff device to be used with disposable tubes for paraplegic voters.

An on-screen keyboard can be used for write-in votes, which makes them more legible without any marginal marks that might confuse a judge or optical scanner, he said.

It uses generic ballots so the county does not have to buy its ballots from only one vendor.

After the voter marks the ballot using the machine, it goes into the same tabulating machine as other voters' ballots, which preserves the anonymity of the disabled voter, he said.

Mr. Eschberger said the machine is awaiting government approval before the company can begin large-scale production. He said he doesn't foresee any problems with the approval.

The county has to buy a machine to help people with disabilities vote at each of its voting locations before January 2006 in order to comply with the law. Voters approved about $2 million in May for new voting equipment, but the new machines probably won't cost that much, Mr. Alexander said.

At a cost of about $5,000 each, the county would spend about $1 million to provide one for each location, he said.