Voting machine purchase presents dilemma

By JAMES MILLER 
Daytona Beach News-Journal 

 March 10, 2005

After years of waiting, Volusia's visually impaired voters are on the verge of getting the equipment they need to vote independently.

Their good news comes with a hitch.

With a state deadline fast approaching, the equipment preferred by county officials and disabled advocates isn't ready and probably won't be in time. And the equipment that is ready has some activists fuming because it doesn't use a paper ballot which some say is the only way to verify a contested election's outcome.

Today, the issue will come before the County Council at its regular meeting in DeLand, when Supervisor of Elections Ann McFall asks the council to let her negotiate a price for the non-paper ballot system. Flagler County elections chief Peggy Rae Border said she also plans to use the system.

"The choice is to obey the law or not obey the law," said Doug Hall, a blind community activist and volunteer coordinator at the Bureau of Braille and Talking Book Library Services in Daytona Beach. "So, frankly, I don't see that the county has a choice."

Hall, like many others, would prefer the county get a system known as the AutoMark produced by Vogue Election Systems. He likes the way the AutoMark, with its easy-to-use touchpad, headphones and high sound quality, works. Activists like that it marks a paper ballot.

The County Council liked it enough to clear former elections supervisor Deanie Lowe to spend almost $1 million most of it federal money to buy 194 units last year. It had earlier endorsed the other system but changed course on Lowe's request.

The problem is the new equipment has to be in place before the county conducts any post-July 1 election, and the AutoMark still hasn't been approved for use by the state. Wednesday, Jenny Nash, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Glenda Hood, said there was no way to estimate how long certification would take.

Another system has been certified, though a touchscreen system made by Diebold Election Systems.

But that system doesn't use a paper ballot and for some activists that's not acceptable.

"There's no way to actually know what's happening with the touchscreen machines," said Susan Pynchon, executive director of the DeLand-based Florida Fair Elections Coalition.

Last year, Pynchon sued the county's canvassing board and former elections chief to try to overturn Volusia's general election results, saying there were serious problems with how the election was handled. A judge threw out the suit, saying it was filed past a state deadline, but another hearing is scheduled for the end of the month.

"It is not the same as having a paper ballot in your hand that you can actually count," said Pynchon, who also expressed concern about electronic manipulation of touchscreen systems an idea Diebold has disputed. "If we lose that ability to have a true recount then we have lost all ability to have a verified election."

But Tim Augustine, chief operations officer of the Volusia elections department, said the Diebold system is secure and verifiable. And while McFall said she'd rather have the paper ballot system because that's what the county already uses, her options are limited.

The Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections opted not to lobby the Legislature to postpone the deadline in part because disabled community advocates fought against any delay, she said.

"Here we are, we're almost 90 to 120 days away from the deadline, and we have no (compliant) equipment," McFall said. "That's what it boils down to."

County Chairman Frank Bruno reluctantly agreed.

He said he would support buying the touchscreen equipment but would like the county to consider selling it and purchasing a ballot-marking system when it becomes available.

"I don't know of anything else to do," he said. "I've been thinking and wracking my brains. I don't want to buy anything without a (paper ballot), but we've got to buy this to keep the elections going."