New systems must be in effect by ?06
April 25, 2005   

By DYLAN MCCAMENT    The Mount Vernon News

MOUNT VERNON ? According to the federal Help America Vote Act, punchcards can no longer be used as ballots in federal elections. By the first federal election of 2006, new voting systems must be in place, said Rita Yarman, director of the Knox County Board of Elections, and there must be one handicapped accessible machine in every voting precinct.

Yarman said the state legislature requires counties to eliminate punchcard ballots and use federal funds for new voting machines. The Ohio Legislature enacted a law that requires voting machines to leave a paper trail visible to voters, she added, although not required to do so by the federal government.

?This way voters could see what their choices were,? Yarman said.

She said most of Ohio?s 88 counties still use punchcard ballots. Knox County, however, uses an electronic, push-button machine with two internal paper trails, which the voter cannot see. She said the voting machines meet state standards, but there is federal money available for an upgrade that might as well be used.

?The machines we have are already 9 years old,? she said. ?They are moved a lot and are wearing out.?

In February, Secretary of State Ken Blackwell issued a directive limiting Ohio county board of elections to two vendors: Election Systems and Software and Diebold Systems. Both are suppliers of optical scanner voting machines. With these, a voter physically marks a ballot and scans it through the machine.

On April 14, Blackwell issued a new directive allowing the use of touchscreen voting machines. With these, voters actually touch the screen, she said, and their ion would appear on the screen. After approval, a print copy visible to voters would be generated. The ?receipt? is cut off, ped in a bin, and stored for future use, such as in the case of recount. Yarman said counties have until the end of May to decide if they want to go with the touchscreen machines.

Yarman said she did not know at this point whether the board would go with touchscreen or optical scan.

?They are leaning toward touchscreen,? she said.

Going to paper ballots seem like a step backward, she said.

The Knox County Board of Elections voted for ES &S in February, but this company?s touchscreen machine is not yet certified. Diebolt?s touchscreen model is certified, she said.

?The bottom line is the company we?re most impressed with is not completely certified,? she said, ?and the feds won?t pay if the machine isn?t certified.?

If costs exceed what the federal government has allowed each county per machine, Yarman said, the county will have to pay for the difference.

She said constant legislative changes have complicated the matter and the board is trying to use good judgement.

?In the end, we may not have much choice,? she said.