Touch screens not ruled out
Company expects its electronic equipment to be certified within next 2 weeks

By Don Fasnacht
Staff writer Richmond, IN Palladium-Item  14 September 2004

At a glance

Here's a look at the recent history of the voting ballot issue in Wayne County:

Wayne County bought 252 iVotronic machines 62 equipped for the handicapped late in August 2003 for about $1 million. The county also inked a service contract with ES&S for $600,000 to tend and program the machines through 2006.

So far, Wayne County hasn't sent the check for the purchase.

However, the equipment has not gained the proper certification to be used.

Wayne County voting officials say they are prepared to use paper ballots in the November elections, if the new equipment is not certified.
 

Wayne County voters will vote on a touch-screen system in November unless.

John Groh, senior vice president for Election Systems & Software (ES&S), expects the iVotronic voting machines Wayne County bought to be a fully certified in the next 10 days or so.

"iVotronic is in the final stage of testing," Groh told a group of county officials, poll workers and concerned citizens here Monday.

"I expect to receive a letter of final approval by Friday," Groh said.

That letter comes from the federal government after extensive testing of the machine and its software by outside contractors.

ES&S will take the letter to the Indiana Board of Elections on the following Wednesday, Sept. 22, and that should clear the way for using the machines without a special dispensation.

Groh was confident everything would come together before the Oct. 1 deadline that has been imposed on the machines, "But in life, nothing is guaranteed for certain."

If the certification doesn't go through, everyone in Wayne County will vote in the same way absentee voters cast their ballots on paper, coloring in the dots on an optical scanner sheet.

Voting will seem a little like taking the SAT Test.

Switching to the paper system at the last minute won't cost Wayne County anything. Under an agreement with the state earlier, ES&S will pick up the tab.

"It could cost us a bundle," ES&S regional sale manager Robb McGinnis said, "just in shipping, if nothing else."

Not only would ES&S print the paper ballots, it would have to ship enough Model 100 scanners to equip all 57 precincts in the county for the election.

But if the worse case scenario happens, Groh said ES&S will make sure, "You have a trouble-free election in November."

The touch-screen voting machines have been used in two elections so far in Wayne County, the municipal elections in 2003 and the primary this year. There wasn't a hitch either time.

But it took special permission to use the machines in the primary, because it was determined by then the machines and their software hadn't been certified in Indiana yet.

When the waiver was granted so Wayne County and three other Indiana counties could use them in the spring, the rules were laid down get the machines certified or find another way to vote in the fall.

Groh said ES&S was not aware of an Indiana law that went into effect July 1, 2003, requiring all voting machines to meet standard set by the federal government in 2002. The iVotronic met earlier federal standards set in 1990, Groh said.

But when the machines were shipped to Wayne County after the new Hoosier law, they were out of compliance.

Groh said if federal standards and state requirements continue to change, the iVotronic can be adapted. It can even be retrofitted with a printer to provide a "paper trail" of voting.

Wayne County bought 252 iVotronic machines 62 equipped for the handicapped late in August 2003 for about $1 million. The county also inked a service contract with ES&S for $600,000 to tend and program the machines through 2006.

So far, Wayne County hasn't sent the check for the purchase.