County holds pay for voting devices
Wayne Co. waits for machines to be certified

By Rebecca Helmes
Staff writer

Wayne County won't pay for $1.6 million in electronic voting equipment from Election Systems & Software until after it is certified by the state of Indiana.

The Wayne County Council had put back $400,000 from the 2003 budget to pay ES&S but voted Wednesday to "unencumber" it. The money will be put in the 2005 budget.

This year's budget also designates $400,000 to pay ES&S, but the council has not spent any of it.

Wayne County Clerk Sue Anne Lower said ES&S still is working on getting Wayne County's iVotronics certified.

"We haven't paid anything, and we're not going to until the equipment is certified," Lower said.

ES&S sold the county a computer-based touch screen voting system called iVotronics. The local machines have not been certified by the state. Wayne County is one of at least four Indiana counties in the same situation.

The total cost of Wayne County's equipment is about $1.6 million, with some reimbursement coming from the state government.

In Johnson County, south of Indianapolis, where ES&S equipment also has not been certified, the county clerk decided Aug. 19 to forego using the machines on Nov. 2 and return to a paper ballot system provided by ES&S for the fall.

"We thought by now this'd all be done," Wayne County Auditor Chris Beeson said. "We've gotten to the place we don't know when we're going to pay for it.

"It doesn't sound very encouraging that this is going to get finished."

Wayne County Commissioner Tom Dickman said it's unfortunate that county officials spent so much time helping people become familiar with the machines, since now the state will not allow counties to use them unless they're certified.

Lower doesn't know what method the county will use to vote if the iVotronics can't be certified in time. She said ES&S will have a news conference Sept. 13 to discuss how ES&S and her office will deal with the voting machine issue.