Fedor, Ujvagi seek to lease vote machines
Blackwell's office says funds are to be used for purchases

By FRITZ WENZEL
BLADE POLITICAL WRITER

Democratic lawmakers Teresa Fedor and Peter Ujvagi yesterday called for Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell to use some of the money set aside to buy new voting equipment around the state to pay for Lucas County to rent optical scan voting machines for the November election.

But a spokesman for Mr. Blackwell said the request will not be entertained.

Ms. Fedor and Mr. Ujvagi said Mr. Blackwell, a Republican, should use the federal money to bail out the county, which has no permanent voting system, because voting machine vendors have not been able to get clearance to sell touch-screens to Ohio counties for use this fall.

"We are requesting … that Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell use our federal [Help America Vote Act] dollars to pay for the leasing of optical scan machines until we are able to purchase the approved voting machines in Ohio," Ms. Fedor said during a news conference outside Government Center downtown. "Just [last] Friday, Secretary of State Blackwell halted the deployment of Diebold voting machines for 2004 due to unresolved security issues. The Lucas County Board of Elections was deadlocked in its decision to a new voting machine because of the security concerns."

Republican elections board members Sam Thurber and Bernadette Noe voted in May to purchase touch-screen units, but Democrats voted not to do so. After the tie vote, Mr. Blackwell ruled that the county would not be allowed to buy new machines this year, and instead would have to lease equipment.

Three other counties had decided to move forward with the purchase of the Diebold touch-screens, but the secretary of state announced his decision Friday to block deployment of the touch-screen equipment statewide after an independent security testing firm found that some Diebold security matters remained unresolved.

Diebold spokesman Mark Radke said Friday that the independent testing found no problem with the touch-screen's software, but did identify other issues that are easily resolved. Still, Blackwell spokesman Carlo LoParo said his boss was concerned enough to refuse deployment of the machines.

"It's off the table for 2004," Mr. LoParo said. "The [security] issues were sufficient to take deployment off the table,"

The federal dollars, Mr. Loparo added, "are for punch-card buyouts, for the purchase of voting equipment. If we started to use those dollars to lease equipment, we would run out of federal funding before we could buy one system."

"The fact of the matter is the legislature took election reform out of the secretary of state's hands at the leadership of Senator Fedor and Representative Ujvagi," Mr. LoParo said. "If they are serious about this issue, they should walk right back into the General Assembly and introduce legislation and fund the Lucas County system."

Mr. Blackwell had impaneled a committee two years ago to implement the federal election reform bill. The state legislature passed its own version of election reform legislation this spring, which added new requirements to the federal law and changed Mr. Blackwell's plan for the way counties were to purchase new equipment.

Lucas County is seeking to lease optical scan machines for November to replace antiquated lever machines that the elections board has deemed unreliable. The cost of using optical scan equipment is expected to be about $350,000 for November.

"The tax dollars we are asking the secretary of state to provide from HAVA are your tax dollars. You've already paid the federal taxes. So why should you have to pay twice - once, your federal taxes, and then again through Lucas County, for these machines," Mr. Ujvagi said.

County Commissioner Tina Skeldon Wozniak, a Democrat, agreed, and said she intended to send a letter to Mr. Blackwell requesting the money, but her two colleagues disagreed with the letter and said she is acting without their approval.

"This is robbing Peter to pay Paul," said Republican Commissioner Maggie Thurber, who said that the county should not use federal money designated for buying new voting machines to pay for a short-term equipment lease because the county would have to make up that money later on when the time comes to purchase a permanent voting system.

"This is just one commissioner trying to score political points," Ms. Thurber said.

Commissioner Harry Barlos, a Democrat running as an independent this year, speaking in a telephone interview from Phoenix, agreed with Ms. Thurber.