State board approves Diebold

JOHN McCARTHY

Associated Press    10 May 2005

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A state board on Tuesday approved Diebold Election Systems' touch-screen voting machines for use in Ohio. The state elections chief still must sign off on the machines, which a rival company is trying to block in court.

The Board of Voting Machine Examiners said the Diebold machines equipped with a viewer through which voters can see their choices before they are counted complied with Ohio law. Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell usually goes along with its recommendations, agency spokesman James Lee said.

The board's approval came before the state obtained a document certifying it has met federal requirements under the Help America Vote Act. However, Lee said the machines had been tested under standards set by the National Association of State Elections Directors, but the company had yet to receive documentation.

The state should not have approved Diebold's machines without the federal certificate, said Jill Friedman-Wilson, spokeswoman for Election Systems & Software, which also makes touch-screen machines. ES&S is suing Blackwell in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, trying to stop him from offering the Diebold machines to county boards of elections.

Judge Dale Crawford set closing arguments in the case for May 17 - four days after the deadline Blackwell has set for state approval of voting systems. Voting officials in five Ohio counties - Mahoning, Delaware, Sandusky, Ottawa and Seneca - filed letters supporting the ES&S lawsuit.

Friedman-Wilson said the board acted improperly.

"The board of examiners just decided they could change the rules. They unilaterally decided they didn't need a NASED number," she said.

The state has about $115 million in federal money to spend on new voting machines for Ohio's 88 counties. Diebold makes the only touch-screen machines approved by the state. Both Diebold and ES&S make optical scan machines that have met state and federal approval. Those systems read cards that voters mark with pencils to make their choices.

Under federal law, the new machines must be in precincts by the first federal election of 2006, which in Ohio likely will be the May primary.