Counties criticize Blackwell
By: John Arthur Hutchison

The News Herald.com
01/14/2005
 Lake County to challenge precinct count optical scan system decision

Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell's decision to make counties choose precinct count optical scans (PCOS) voting systems has drawn fiery criticism from officials in Lake, Ashtabula and Cuyahoga counties.
Counties will have to a PCOS by Feb. 9, or Blackwell will choose it for them.
Lake County uses electronic voting equipment, and county leaders plan to challenge Blackwell's decision.
Blackwell said the PCOS voting system is the most cost-effective way in Ohio to provide voter verified paper audit trails, as required by Ohio Substitute House Bill 262 passed in 2004, and to ensure compliance with the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).
In a memorandum to the 88 county elections boards, Blackwell said existing federal funding from HAVA and supplemental funding from the Ohio General Assembly under HB 262 would not be sufficient to cover the cost of purchasing recording electronic voting machines with a voter-verified paper audit trail.
With PCOS, the actual paper ballot is available for auditing and recount purposes, said Carlo Loparo, Blackwell's spokesman, adding that no current voting machine vendors have the capability for the paper trail audits.
Ballots would be counted at the precincts, with the data then taken to the election board offices.
Since 1999, Lake County voters have used electronic voting machines, which don't provide the paper trails.
Lake County Elections Board Director Janet F. Clair said the county's vendor, Oakland, Calif.-based Sequoia Voting Systems, is working on a prototype upgrade to provide the paper trails.
HB 262 also contains legislation that allows Lake County to be reimbursed for future expenses to retrofit electronic voter machines, Clair said.
"My point is we have existing equipment that works, and we choose not to replace it," Clair said.
"We would be able to upgrade our existing equipment with federal funds."
Clair said she has concerns with optical-scan systems, such as the privacy of disabled or blind voters and interpreting voter intent.
She said that is not an issue with the voting machines Lake County uses.
"Our system was chosen after 10 years' research," Clair said. "Certainly, the voters have a good sense of comfort with it, the lines at the polls were relatively short, and we were the first county in the state of Ohio to report election results."
Blackwell's decision has prompted Lake County commissioners and election officials to consider legal action or a legislative solution to keep the county's current system in place.
The Lake County Elections Board will meet Wednesday. Prosecutor Charles E. Coulson and commissioners were invited to attend, Clair said.
"There are two avenues we're looking at," Clair said. "One is legislatively to become grandfathered. If not legislatively, legally we need to look at our options."
In 1999, the county spent $3 million to purchase the machines. Of that total, $1.2 million was paid in cash and $1.8 million in bonds were issued, said Michelle Bowens, the county's budget director. Four payments of $200,000 or $800,000 are left to pay.
"It's ludicrous," Lake County Commissioner Daniel P. Troy said of Blackwell's decision. "We have no problems at all with our machines."
Commissioner Robert E. Aufuldish said there have been hundreds of thousands of voters who cast ballots in Lake County with few complaints.
Commissioner Raymond E. Sines said the county did the right thing when the decision was made years ago to the electronic voting machines.
Loparo said changing to an optical-scan system would come at no cost to counties because there is $106 million available from the state and through HAVA.
Geauga County uses a centralized optical scan system, meaning it would have to upgrade to a precinct-capable version, said Suzanne Haslett, Geauga County deputy elections board director.
Gary Coberly, Geauga County Elections Board chairman, said he has confidence in an optical-scan system.
Cuyahoga and Ashtabula counties use punchcard ballots and had planned to eventually switch to electronic voting machines.
"It's awful," said Art Vensel, Ashtabula County Elections Board deputy director. "We've already done a lot of the planning for electronic equipment."
Vensel said the Feb. 9 deadline gives his county insufficient notice to make a decision.
Blackwell's decision came as a shock to Cuyahoga County Elections Board Director Michael Vu. He was expecting to go with electronic voting machines.
"The time frame - this was almost two years in the making, and now we're having to make a decision two to three weeks away," he said. "It seems this whole process has been plagued."