State promises to pay for replacment voting system in 3 counties
 
By PETER JACKSON, Associated Press Writer, The Associated Press April 08, 2005 
 
    
State officials promised Friday to pay for replacement voting systems in three western Pennsylvania counties in which the regular voting equipment has been banned because of questions about its reliability.  

Spokesmen for two of the counties said they were surprised by Secretary of State Pedro Cortes' announcement halting the use of the UniLect Patriot direct recording electronic voting system on Thursday _ barely a month before the May 17 primary election. But they said they were pleased that it would not mean extra costs for county taxpayers.

"Considering that (state officials) created this problem ... they ought to fix it," Beaver County spokesman Brian Hayden said.

"We've been really satisfied with the system," Hayden said, adding that no election has been contested on grounds of miscounted ballots since the county bought its more than 400 UniLect touch-screen machines and related equipment for $1.2 million in 1998. "We got the machine because we had problems with the paper ballot."

"There is no way that our taxpayers should have to incur this debt," said Greene County commissioners' Chairwoman Pam Snyder, who said the county has about $400,000 invested in its 94 UniLect touch-screen stations, also purchased in 1998. "It's just not right. They've done it once."

Mercer County officials did not comment on the decision but issued a statement saying they would meet with state representatives on what system to use in the May primary.

Gov. Ed Rendell's office relayed the news to commissioners in Beaver, Greene and Mercer counties in a conference call Friday morning, his office said. Cortes said his representatives will discuss details with officials from those counties in Beaver on Monday.

The UniLect Patriot system is used by more than two dozen counties in 14 other states, according to Michael I. Shamos, a state consultant who recommended decertification of the system in Pennsylvania.

A spokeswoman for California-based UniLect Corp. took issue with Shamos' findings and vowed to seek a restoration of the system's certification.

"We don't agree with the findings. There are a number of faulty issues in the report," said the spokeswoman, Catherine Burkhart.

At least 40 million Americans used paperless voting terminals to cast ballots in the Nov. 2 election, but a growing number of federal and state legislators have expressed doubts about the integrity of the ATM-like machines.

Pennsylvania officials say they are confident that any votes cast but not counted by the UniLect system in the three counties would not have changed the outcomes of any races in the Nov. 2 election.

Cortes ordered the Feb. 15 re-examination of the system at the request of 19 Beaver County voters. In those tests, the touch-screen devices failed to sense finger touches and also froze up at times, according to Shamos' report.

A separate study indicated that the "undercount" in the presidential race _ the difference between the number of voters who cast ballots and the total votes counted _ was higher in the three counties that used the UniLect system than the 1.5 percent average in a group of 24 rural counties. The undercount was 7.3 percent in Mercer County, 5.3 percent in Beaver County and 4.5 percent in Greene County, according to the study by a professor at Grove City College.

Burkhart said the equipment used in Shamos' re-examination was a "prototype" that was different from the devices used in the three counties. However, she said its failure to register touches and tendency to freeze up were normal because no ballot was ed in the device.

State Department spokeswoman Allison Hrestak said the assertions came as news to state officials.

"Nobody was under that impression and has ever heard that that machine was a prototype," she said.

For next month's municipal and judicial primaries, the three counties will likely have to choose between using paper ballots or renting machines from another manufacturer, Hrestak said. But they will have more choices if they buy new systems later in the year, she said.

Under the federal Help America Vote Act, Mercer County is already entitled to full reimbursement because it bought its UniLect system in 2001. State officials plan to amend the state's HAVA plan to provide full reimbursement to Beaver and Green counties, Hrestak said.

Pennsylvania's 67 counties, which run the state's elections, count ballots using a half-dozen voting methods, including two touch-screen systems made by other manufacturers, lever machines, optical scanners, punch cards and paper ballots.