County ponders voting switch
State-enforced change coming sooner or later

By Kate Giammarise  Chillicothe Gazette Staff Writer   03 February 2005

Nancy Bell's job just doesn't get any easier.

In the wake of a difficult general election, she and the Ross County Board of Elections now are faced with an ultimatum from the Ohio Secretary of State's Office.

They must replace current voting machines with one of two types of new machines ed by Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's office. If they don't pick out new machines by Wednesday, Blackwell's office will the machines for them.

"Buying voting machines is different from buying a car. You've got to study them and check them out," she said. Bell said the board was able to view the machines in question only last week.

Bell said the board still is paying for the machines purchased nearly 10 years ago, in 1996. The board must pay a bill of $6,327 every month for them until September 2006.

Bell said the board is happy with the current machines. They were ed after surveying poll workers and voters and after taking into consideration the potential storage and transportation costs.

The machines now being used are electronic machines made by the company MicroVote. Voters must touch a pad, not the screen, to cast their vote. The machines do not allow an overvote, or a vote for more than one candidate running for the same office. The machines also do not allow the voter to cast a vote until they have looked at all the pages on the ballot.

In addition, the machines record the vote totals with multiple paper printouts, as well as on a computer cartridge inside the machine.

These machines must be replaced with one of the machines ed by Blackwell's office Diebold Elections Systems or Election Systems and Software. Both of these machines have what is called a "precinct-count optical scan."

Carlo LoParo, the spokesman for Secretary of State Blackwell's office said, the precinct-count optical scan is a paper ballot. Voters it into a reader and, if there is an overvote, the machine gives it back.

"Ross County would have to replace its voting machines nonetheless, since MicroVote did not qualify under our evaluation process," LoParo said. "It does not have the voter-verified paper audit trail, and it has not met the state's security requirements."

LoParo said the new machines will not be deployed until May 2006. He said the precinct-count optical scan machines are the best because they fall within the state's budget, meet the requirements of the Help America Vote Act and can be deployed swiftly.

But Bell said optical scan machines, which the board currently uses to count absentee ballots, are not as good.

"It has been our experience that the count can change due to some marks being counted one time and not another, by too light of a pencil or too dark of a pencil being used," she said. "Even a piece of dust or lint can affect the count. We have always been relieved and felt blessed that our whole county was not optical scan, just the absentees."

Bell sent a letter to several public officials and the editor of the Gazette pleading for help.

"We, at the local level feel completely ignored. It seems like we had no voice when the decision was made ... and now we are being forced to use a technology that is inferior to what we presently have. ... We feel as if we have, wasted our Ross County taxpayers money to purchase a system that worked well for us for many years and are now faced with more problems because we had the foresight to step into the future."

The letter was sent to Blackwell's office, and the offices of: U.S. Sens. Mike DeWine and George Voinovich; U.S. Reps. Bob Ney and Dave Hobson; State Sen. John Carey and State Reps. Clyde Evans and John Schlichter. Since she sent the letter Jan. 18, Bell said only Evans and Carey have replied.

"There's legislation about election reform in general," Carey said, citing House Bill 3 and Senate Bill 3.

Carey said he has been discussing the issue with others in the State Senate, and said he would like Bell and Ross County Board of Elections Deputy Director Nora Madru to testify when hearings begin on Senate Bill 3.

"We will see what if anything can be done," he said.

Carey didn't know if anything could be done before the deadline for the board of elections to purchase the new machines, however.

Evans also is working on the issue.

"I will be doing what I can. I've already set up an appointment to talk to a key representative who is working in that area," he said. "I can't tell you the direction we're going to go or what we're going to get done. I think it's very disturbing that election boards at one time had the freedom to make these choices and now that's been cut out from under them."

Madru said the board is preparing to make a decision on which machine it prefers.

"We have been gathering information about the two systems, Diebold Elections Systems and Election Systems and Software. We will decide during the board meeting on Feb. 8. We have pros and cons with each of them, but it's the board's decision."