Lake considering new voting machines
By: John Arthur Hutchison   News-Herald

Staff Writer
02/02/2005
 Officials say they'll pick optical scan vendor, though they don't want to

Lake County elections officials say the county might be forced to change from electronic voting machines to a precinct-count optical scan voting system.
Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell has directed Ohio's 88 counties to either Omaha, Neb.-based Elections Systems and Software (ES and S), or Canton-based Diebold by Feb. 9.
No contracts need to be finalized. Only the choice of vendor must be made.
If a county does not make a choice, Blackwell will.
After a meeting Tuesday with Lake County Prosecutor Charles E. Coulson and Commissioners Robert E. Aufuldish and Raymond E. Sines, the four-member elections board decided to meet Feb. 9 to an optical scan vendor.
"I think we have to make a choice whether we want to or not," Elections Board Chairman John F. Platz said.
Still on the table is the option for the state to purchase the optical scan equipment for the county, officials said.
But there are concerns about hidden operating costs, such as additional printing expenses and the purchase of privacy booths.
Although their hope is diminishing somewhat, elections officials and political leaders are still pursuing some kind of legislative approach through the Ohio General Assembly.
They want the state to allow Lake County to be "grandfathered" and some state requirements relaxed, Platz said.
County elections officials last week attended a state association conference of elections officials in Columbus.
After that, Platz said there also appears to be no chance the county will be reimbursed by the state for the $3 million spent in 1999 to purchase the electronic voting machines.
The county still owes $800,000 in payments.
State law passed last year requires voting equipment to have a voter-verified paper audit trail. The electronic voting machines that the county currently uses do not provide that option.
Elections officials had hoped their vendor, Oakland, Calif.-based Sequoia Voting Systems, would soon have a prototype available to retrofit existing equipment to provide a paper audit trail.
A pending sale of Sequoia prevented the company from writing a letter to Lake County indicating whether the firm can meet the retrofitting requirement, Elections Board Director Janet F. Clair said.
A precinct-count optical scan system requires voters to use pencils to fill in circles to cast their ballots.
The ballots are then read through optical scanners. A paper audit trail is provided.
Clair has several concerns with optical scan equipment. One concern is whether the two vendors Blackwell directs counties to choose from will make equipment that is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
She also is concerned that Blackwell could later rule one or both vendors don't meet his certification for ADA after a county makes its choice.
But at this point, Clair said she would recommend using ES and S, if the county is forced to use optical scan equipment.
"ES and S seem to have a more user-friendly system for a larger county," Clair said.
Her recommendation comes with only a small amount of research, she said.
In 1999, when the county ed Sequoia, nearly a decade of research went into that decision, Clair said.
Elections officials plan to go to Canton today to view a demonstration by Diebold and to Cuyahoga County on Friday for a demonstration by ES and S, Clair said.