Touch-screen voting system officially out

Sunday, May 01, 2005
By Tom Barnes and Brian David, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The state Department of Elections has affirmed its decision to dump the UniLect touch-screen voting system used in Beaver, Greene and Mercer counties.

Friday's announcement, which follows an initial decertification April 7, won't further impact the May 17 primary election, because all three counties had decided to use an optical-scanning paper ballot system.

"The UniLect system doesn't meet the conditions in the election code; it doesn't fully and accurately count all votes," said state elections spokesman Brian McDonald.

The ruling leaves unsettled what systems the three counties will use for future elections, starting with the November general election.

The decertification was upheld by the state because the touch-screen system failed, in two tests, to register all the votes cast on it. The original certification hearing, conducted in February, was requested by Beaver County voters.

Beaver County Commissioner Dan Donatella said there's still a question of financial liability for the system, for which the county paid $1.2 million in 1998, after the state certified it.

"We're going to have to negotiate on how to handle that," he said. "If [the state] would have told us that it didn't meet the standard, then we wouldn't have bought it."

For the May 17 primary, he said, county officials are focusing on emergency printing of ballots, retrofitting voting booths, renting optical scanners to read the ballots and bringing in extra workers.

Beaver estimates it will cost an extra $110,000 to make the switch to paper ballots, a bill the state has promised to pay.

"In no way does this mean we accept this [paper ballot system] on a permanent basis," Donatella said.

He said he's spoken to House Democratic Whip Mike Veon of Beaver Falls about getting help from the state. He noted that House Democratic leader H. William DeWeese is from Greene County.

"I think we have some people who will listen,'' he said. He said he plans to meet with Greene and Mercer county officials after the primary.

Last week, Mercer Elections Director Tom Rookey estimated an additional cost of about $100,000 for his county. Yesterday, he said the county was already making preparations to use the paper ballot scanning system for the general election, too, even if UniLect regains its certification by then.