Every Connecticut polling place to have electronic voting machine

Saturday, March 5, 2005

By Chris Gardner

Copyright ? 2005 Republican-American

SOUTHBURY Electronic voting machines will not be foisted on cities and towns, although each community will get at least one by early fall, according to Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz.

The state is required by federal law to put at least one machine at each of the roughly 750 polling places by 2006, Bysiewicz said Friday during an appearance at Town Hall sponsored by the Southbury chapter of the League of Women Voters.

Towns and cities that want to replace their lever voting machines can get in line for federal grant money, but the state will not require a full-scale changeover, she said.

"I expect not all the towns will want them," she said.

The issue turned political after Congress passed the Help American Vote Act after the 2000 election, which requires polling places to have at least one machine that produces a paper record of voters and allows disabled people to vote privately and independently. The electronic machines do both; lever machines meet neither criterion.

Many Democrats in Connecticut, including Bysiewicz, have advocated a complete dismantling of the fleet of lever voting machines, saying electronic machines can be more reliable and easier for disabled people to use.

Opponents, mostly Republicans, fear the state is moving too fast because the technology hasn't been perfected, and that lever voting machines represent a system that isn't broken.

Eight communities used electronic machines during last November's municipal election, and Bysiewicz said a survey revealed 92 percent of people felt they were "simple and easy" to use.

"They felt confident that their vote counted," she said. "That should alleviate some of the concerns that certain people in our state have that senior citizens may feel uncomfortable ... to use these voting machines."

The state has $33 million from the federal government to buy new machines. Bysiewicz estimates it will cost $5 million to put them in every polling place; the balance of the money will be used to buy machines for communities that want them, she said. Any money left over will be set aside for maintenance and repairs.

Already, voting machine manufacturers have submitted bids, and the state will put machines in each Congressional district in April and May so voters, municipal clerks and registrars can try them out, she said.

Based on the response, the state will choose a vendor, who should deliver them by mid to late summer. Then they will be distributed so poll workers can be trained.

She expects they'll be used for the first time during this November's municipal election; voters will have the option to use a lever machine, or try the electronic machine.

Most communities haven't decided whether to take the state's offer for new machines.

Ginger Salisbury, Southbury's town clerk, was not in the office Friday, but her assistant, Lynn Dwyer, said the town will need more information about the machines before it makes a decision.