Outlook brightens for electronic-voting support
North County Times. February 25, 2005. By: DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer

Chances have improved that Riverside County will be able to cover its costs for equipping 4,250 touch-screen voting machines with paper printers in time for 2006 elections, the county's registrar of voters said this week.

A statewide task force has recommended awarding $7.5 million of California's $195 million in federal Help America Vote Act funds to Riverside County for retrofitting its electronic voting machines, said Registrar of Voters Barbara Dunmore.

Dunmore said she anticipates a decision by the secretary of state on the recommendation in early March and is reasonably confident Sacramento will award the county the full amount.
 
The precise cost of the retrofit is unknown, but the approximate amount is becoming more clear. Dunmore said the county knows it will have to put up $5.1 million for 5,100 printers one for each of the 4,250 touch screens, plus an extra one for each polling place. The supplier has settled on a price of $1,000 per printer, she said.

Additional costs for retrofit kits, labor and required extra poll-worker training mean the total will approach, if not exceed, $7.5 million, she said.

When it comes to electronic voting, Riverside has been a pioneer. It was the first large county in the nation to widely use touch-screen machines in elections, when it purchased the ATM-like devices for $14 million and used them in the November 2000 presidential election.

Because of growing concern around the state and nation about the potential for errors or fraudulence to go undetected in electronic voting, California lawmakers last year passed a law requiring touch screens to be equipped with printers for all 2006 elections. That means Riverside County must ready its entire voting system for the June 2006 primary that will involve all county voters, and retrofit enough machines before then to handle any local elections that might come up next year in advance of the primary.

Dunmore said the county plans to use a product called VeriVote manufactured by Oakland-based Sequoia Voting Systems. On Jan. 20, the secretary of state certified the product for use on the type of touch screens used by San Bernardino and Santa Clara counties.

The state has yet to certify the device for the voting machines used by Riverside and other counties. Dunmore, however, said certification is expected by late April or early May, because VeriVote printers work on the EdgeI machines Riverside County has.

The printers would give voters an opportunity to check their votes against a printed record before they click a button and submit their electronic ballots. Voters would not, however, be permitted to take copies home with them. Wrapped on a spool behind a clear plastic screen, the paper records would be stored by elections officials and used to audit electronic vote totals in recounts.

Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2616, or ddowney@californian.com.