County approves purchase of new voting machines
By Nick Hytrek, Sioux City Journal staff writer    20 April 2005

  

Out with the arrows and in with the ovals.

By as early as August, Woodbury County voters will be coloring in new shapes on their ballots as the county upgrades its election equipment to meet federal standards.

"The only difference most voters will be seeing is instead of filling in an arrow, they'll be filling in an oval," said Patrick Gill, Woodbury County Auditor/Recorder and commissioner of elections.
  

The ballots will be the same as those used now for absentee ballots.

The Woodbury County Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved the purchase of 50 machines. The current price is $564,000, but Gill said the state of Iowa is negotiating with the vendor to get lower prices for all counties. The final price likely will be $550,000 or lower, Gill said. The county has received a $498,000 state grant to pay for most of the replacement cost. The county budgeted for up to $525,000, so the remainder of the cost has yet to be funded. It likely will come from gambling or local option sales tax revenues.

The county decided against touch-screen balloting machines because in case of a contested election, there are no paper ballots to check election results against. Voters also will have less confusion using a system with which they are already familiar and one that has proven to be reliable.

"They're what the voters are used to. They're optical scans, and we've had good results in the past," said supervisor Bob Batcheller, who was on the committee that helped review machines.

The equipment upgrade was required by the federal Help America Vote Act, which was passed in the wake of the 2000 presidential election and the problems with ballots in Florida.

The machines Woodbury County will buy are the next generation of the county's current equipment, Gill said.

All counties were required to have equipment that meets the federal standards by Jan. 1. Woodbury County voters could be using it by the Aug. 2 special election on the renewal of the 1-cent school infrastructure local option sales tax.