St. Louis County lags behind in shift from punch card voting
By Jo Mannies
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
03/21/2005

Jo Mannies
 
Blame it on Florida.

The ghost of that state's punch card-ballot mess in the 2000 presidential election is still haunting election officials in Missouri and Illinois - especially those in the states' urban areas, which mainly still use punch card ballots.

But that might not be true for long. This Friday, the St. Louis Election Board is expected to take the first step toward likely approval of a new optical-scan voting system for city voters, says chairman Derio Gambaro. Such a system uses a special paper ballot that is scanned into a computer that counts the votes.

Jefferson County already is shifting to an optical-scan system, and soon so will St. Charles County. Kansas City is expected to follow suit, says Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan.

Such changes would put most of Missouri's urban and suburban counties in line with the bulk of rural counties, which switched to optical scan years ago.

The one holdout: St. Louis County.

The reason: Money.

Before we explain why, a little history.

Election officials around the country have until Jan. 1 to dump the punch cards, if they want to take advantage of the federal government's special buyout program that will pay some of the cost. The buyout is part of the federal Help America Vote Act, crafted after the November 2000 mess in Florida and influenced by the chaos at the polls in St. Louis.

Missouri has in the bank close to $70 million in federal money, most of it mandated for the buyout. Any unspent money must go back to Washington.

The hang-up for jurisdictions still using punch cards is the overall price to switch. Even with federal help, counties must spend millions of dollars for the new voting systems - money that most local governments would rather spend on other pressing needs.

But failure to switch also will be costly, because the federal law requires that - as of next year - all polling places must have special equipment that allows voters to verify how they voted. And no federal aid is expected to be available to pay for such equipment for punch card ballots or any other older voting system.

(The federal government is covering the cost for all polling places to have at least one special voting machine - generally a touch screen - that's accessible to the blind or disabled.)

That rock-and-a-hard-place dilemma is the primary reason why the city of St. Louis is reluctantly preparing to switch voting systems. Officials estimate that the city will have to come up with an additional $1 million or so, on top of the $1.1 million in expected federal aid.

But in St. Louis County, by far Missouri's largest voting jurisdiction, the local share of the cost is seen as too great. The dream touch-screen system that the county's Election Board staff has been promoting for several years comes with an estimated price tag of close to $30 million. The federal aid would cover less than a quarter of that.

No formal proposal has been presented to the St. Louis County Council. The behind-the-scenes talk points to the outspoken opposition of one man in particular - Councilman Skip Mange, R-Town and Country.

"I have consistently said over the past two years that I saw no need to make a change," Mange said Friday. "I've been very vocal about it, and I've said 'No.'"

Besides the price tag, Mange has been concerned about the controversies in other states over touch-screen systems, especially those without a paper trail.

County Executive Charlie Dooley, a Democrat, also has been cool to the idea of change. "Even with the federal dollars, the cost to the county would be prohibitive," said spokesman Mac Scott.

The county has about $40 million in bonding authority available, which could be tapped without asking voters. But Mange notes that there's a parade of other county needs: from a new countywide emergency communications system to parks and public works.

But Carnahan said in a recent interview, "I don't think the voters in the largest jurisdiction in this state should have to use antiquated equipment."

And she's not alone.

Carnahan echoes the concern of a bipartisan array of election experts, including the county's former GOP elections director, Paul DeGregorio, who now sits on the federal panel crafting election-systems regulations.

Mange agrees, and he adds that he's wondering about talk "that the federal government will come in and require that we make the changes whether we want to or not."

In any event, county Democratic elections director Judy Taylor notes that the county has little time to act. She's interested in reports of new voting machines that may be more in line with lean budgets.

"We were going to check out some systems after the April election, but we're not sure if we have money in the travel budget," Taylor said. "St. Louis County is hurting for money."