Rocking the voting machines
By Patrick Davis - The Daily Iowan
May 3, 2005

Johnson County voters may cast ballots on touch screens, and election officials may tabulate results via Internet as early as the fall elections.

Those are some of the options vendors offered the Johnson County Board of Supervisors at a Monday sales show, which will continue through today at the county fairgrounds. Disability-friendly machines and high-speed tabulation devices were some of the other options supervisors considered.

"We absolutely need to have new equipment," said Sally Stutsman, the chairwoman of the supervisors. "The current machines are old enough that it is hard to get replacement parts."

The supervisors are planning to replace the current 21-year-old machines before September, in time for upcoming School Board and City Council elections.

The supervisors debated whether to purchase new equipment before the 2000 election, infamous for Florida's ballot fiasco, but talk was put on hold for new state and federal voting-machine requirements. Federal standards passed in 2002 require further accommodations for disabled people.

Requirements on whether electronic voting should produce paper ballots has been debated in the state Legislature with no resolution. Johnson County Auditor Tom Slockett said paper ballots will still be used in Johnson County, regardless of whether the state mandates them.

"[A paper trail] must be a top priority; it should be a national requirement," he said.

Paper is the most reliable source in the case of equipment failure or voting irregularities, he said.

The new machines will help disabled people vote in greater privacy than in the past. Some of the new features may include audio and Braille devices to help elderly and disabled people at the polls.

"With the new technology for disabled people and foreign languages, it's time for us to replace our equipment," Slockett said.

Stutsman expressed relief that the county waited until now to buy new equipment, on account of the federal government's assistance with the purchase.

The county anticipates spending roughly $1 million on the new equipment, with a $600,000 grant from the federal government provided that the county has all of the equipment in hand before 2006. Slockett expects bonds to be issued to cover the remaining cost.