County auditor: Keep voting equipment
By David Heitz   QuadCities Times   13 April 2005

The message directed at Iowa Secretary of State Chet Culver by several voters, poll workers and the Scott County auditor was clear Tuesday night: Leave the county?s voting equipment alone.

Unfortunately, Culver said during a public meeting at the Scott Community College Kahl Center in Davenport, the matter is out of his hands.

More than 60 people attended the meeting, intended to help explain voting changes mandated by the federal Help America Vote Act, or HAVA, which passed 99-1 in the U.S. Senate.

Scott County currently uses optical-scan voting equipment purchased eight years ago. However, the machines do not detect ovals filled in by pens, as required by federal law. Karen Fitzsimmons, Scott County auditor and commissioner of elections, said she would like to have the equipment retrofitted to meet the federal requirement, but HAVA doesn?t allow that.

She said it would cost about $75,000 to retrofit the machines as compared to almost $1 million to buy new. The federal government has granted Scott County $750,000 to help pay for new equipment.

?I think we?ve had flawless elections in this county and the best voter registration system possible,? she said. ?I?m looking out for what?s best for Scott County. That?s my goal. We all have the same goal and that?s to save local taxpayers money. There?s no need for us to spend money unnecessarily if there?s a way to work this out, and I think that there is.?

Culver said HAVA stemmed from the debacle in Florida during the 2000 presidential election, which left as many as six million voters disenfranchised. The law requires counties nationwide to switch to either an upgraded optical-scan system or touch-screen voting.

?The idea that the state has mandated anything is inaccurate completely,? Culver said. ?This is a federal mandate and the Department of Justice has the power to enforce it. This is the only county where we have had this level of misunderstanding about what the requirements are about.?

Fitzsimmons rebuked that notion, telling him, ?Everyone is not on your side. I hate to tell you that.?

Culver said he empathizes with county officials and residents.

?We share the frustration, we share the concern. Nobody is suggesting we waste taxpayer money, but this is a federal mandate,? he answered.

Resident Rex Hutchison of Davenport left the meeting when Culver and Fitzsimmons exchanged words.

?People here have got an extremely parochial view of what this is all about,? he said. ?We need to be thinking about what it means to the voters, not just in Scott County, not just in Iowa, but in the entire country.

?We can?t afford to have people disenfranchised. There is nothing more sacred to being an American than your right to vote.?

Several elderly people in the audience said they feared computerized voting equipment would be too complicated to operate.

?When we get into computer knowledge in the senior citizen area, I have got to say we are not so inclined,? said Wayne Wood of Davenport. ?My 3-year-old grandson would be able to vote but I couldn?t.?

Fitzsimmons said that if the county is forced to buy new equipment, it will purchase something similar to the current system.

The law also requires that special voting equipment be installed in every precinct that allows people with disabilities to vote independently. The system would read the ballot to voters, who then could designate their choice for office. People without use of their hands would register their votes by blowing into a straw.

Mike Hoenig of Davenport, who served on a HAVA advisory committee, said such equipment is needed.

?I?m here as a private citizen who very much values the right to vote. As a person who has been blind since birth, I have always had to rely on help from someone to vote. What I?m hearing are some pretty strong feelings of anger.?

Scott County Supervisor Tom Sunderbruch said requirements like HAVA give government a bad name.

?It?s my opinion that Florida had a hell of a problem with their voting, so Iowa has to spend $30 million,? he said. ?It screams of the $500 screwdriver.?

Culver said those who oppose the HAVA requirements are missing an important piece of the puzzle.

?We?re missing a big civil rights issue here,? he said. ?It?s not a perfect system and it can be improved for some people.?