Voting machine woes go on

System failure in Florida raises concerns here

By HERB MARYNELL Courier & Press staff writer 464-7434 or hmarynel@evansville.net
July 30, 2004

Vanderburgh County Clerk Marsha Abell will try to get answers today from the supplier of touch screen voting equipment on why voting data disappeared in Florida precincts where the firm's system is used.

The problem apparently centers on computer crashes last year that destroyed most of the electronic records from a Miami-Dade County election. Voting was on Election Systems & Software equipment.

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"I don't know what happened in Florida," Abell said. "I want to see what happened."

She plans to discuss the issue with ES&S technicians.

She said she isn't too concerned about the Florida situation yet because someone other than ES&S may have handled the data storage. But if the data is lost because of a computer system crash or if more storage is needed, "I'm going to have them add it on (here)," Abell said.

The Omaha, Neb., company is one of the major suppliers of touch screen voting equipment along with Diebold Election Systems of Texas.

However, news reports indicate problems have surfaced with both systems as local communities move from punch card systems to electronic voting equipment.

A more immediate question for Vanderburgh County officials is what state-certified touch screen voting will be available for the Nov. 2 general election.

Abell said an independent laboratory ed by Indiana is testing software versions of ES&S system. The state requires that the equipment be certified by Oct. 1 to use in the fall general election.

Abell said newer systems are more user friendly, but if the machines and firmware are not certified by Oct. 1, Vanderburgh County will have to use an older ES&S system in November. That system is state certified. The cost for any system changes will be paid for by ES&S, she said.

The county will have to use the older touch screen version because "I don't have any options," Abell said. "We can't go back to the punch cards."

One of the ES&S systems being tested was used in Vanderburgh County for the May primary. There were few complaints and returns came in much faster than in previous elections.

The company supplies 550 iVotronic terminals for Vanderburgh County's 139 precincts, including 150 for blind and hearing impaired voters. There also are three additional precincts - two without any voters and a third where residents vote at the Civic Center.

County Commissioner Catherine Fanello said the commissioners in August will have to begin constantly tracking the progress of ES&S's efforts to get newer voting systems certified by the state.

The county has a five-year lease purchase agreement for the ES&S equipment, but has paid the company only $250,000 so far. The county still owes $1.96 million on the original agreement.

Much of the money for the voting system will come from the federal government.

A major complaint about the touch screen system is a lack of a paper trail as a backup for the results. Fanello said she favors having a paper trail of voting results, but that usually is expensive on existing systems.

Election experts also have urged communities to have a separate backup storage operation for election results, either on hard drives or discs.