New machine
deadline fast approaching

Jim Wallace  Charleston Daily Mail    March 01, 2005

 Facing deadline pressure, Secretary of State Betty Ireland's office is almost ready to tell counties like Kanawha and Putnam the best ways to replace their old punch-card voting machines with more modern equipment.

Those options can't come soon enough for many county officials around the state who are trying to put their budgets together for the fiscal year that will begin in July.

"At some point, it's decision time, and I think that point is here," Kanawha County Commissioner Kent Carper said.

The federal Help America Vote Act will require counties with punch-card and lever machines to replace them in time for elections in 2006. In West Virginia, Kanawha, Putnam and 10 other counties with punch-card machines and three with lever machines will have to come up with replacements in time for next year's May primary.

The trouble is that the counties have been waiting for the state to give them guidelines on what machines would be acceptable. Carper said they also want to know how much federal or state funding will be available, when it will be available and how much the counties will have to put up in matching funds.

But Ben Beakes, Ireland's chief of staff, said the states have been waiting for the federal government to give them answers to the same questions. However, with several bills pending in Congress on the subject of voting machines, clear guidance from Washington doesn't seem to be coming anytime soon, he said, so the secretary of state's office will offer its own guidance within a few weeks.

"Commissioner Carper is right on," Beakes said. "We are in a crunch. It's our top priority."

Patti Hamilton, executive director of the West Virginia Association of Counties, said she has heard from many county officials around the state about this problem. They are required to turn their new budgets into the state by March 28, she said.

Beakes said the secretary of state's office already has a plan that should be released within a few weeks, but first, the office is consulting with the federal government and neighboring states to make sure it will work. A visit to Ohio's secretary of state's office is scheduled for next week.

"I think the counties will be really pleased with this," Beakes said. "We'll be meeting with the appropriate officials before we release the plan."

Those appropriate officials include not only county officials but also special interest groups, such as Citizens for Clean Elections.

Although many elections officials around the nation have been looking at switching to electronic voting machines, Beakes said they are not the only means for complying with the new federal law. He said the punch-card and lever machines could even still be used, but their use would have to be accompanied by vast education campaigns that would actually make them more expensive than other options.

The punch-card machines in particular fell into disfavor as a result of problems with them in Florida that delayed the outcome of the 2000 presidential election. They and the lever machines are considered less reliable than other voting systems.

But electronic systems, which have been adopted in Cabell and Marion counties, have their own problems. They're expensive and they lack the means to verify their accuracy unless they come with paper printouts. Beakes said Ireland would support their purchase only if they can produce "a paper trail."

The federal law already provides for putting at least one voting machine, most likely electronic, that is useable by people with disabilities in each precinct at federal expense. So about $8 million in federal funds will be spent on supplying the almost 2,000 precincts in West Virginia with those machines, Beakes said.

The federal government will also provide another $8.5 million or so to help counties around the state buy new voting machines and an additional $2.5 million specifically to help counties with punch-card or lever machines, he said.

"The way it's set up now, counties will have to match those funds," Beakes said. "No state dollars of any large amount have been given for these matches."

However, he said the Manchin administration and the Legislature have set up a zero percent interest loan fund to help the counties buy new machines.

"The focus is to try to reduce the burden on the counties," Beakes said, but it'll still be tough for some counties to come up with the money they need. This expense comes at a time when many counties are having trouble paying for such other items as regional jail costs and health insurance for their employees.

In Kanawha County, the commissioners have had $800,000 set aside for a few years in the expectation they would have to buy new voting machines but coming up with more money could be difficult.

Carper said the budget is looking especially lean right now with less money in the general fund that it takes to operate the county for one month. He's worried that the county might face a cash shortage by May or June.