Mandate to replace voting machines raises concern
?By Richard Robbins? TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, May 15, 2005

County election officials are expressing increasing concern about a federal government mandate to replace levered voting machines and to upgrade other types of voting apparatus in time for the spring 2006 primary election.

Cost is one worry officials have. Educating jittery voters and poll workers is another.

"This is a mandate not totally funded," said Fayette County Commissioner Vincent Vicites. "This is a burden placed on us by the federal government. I don't see the reason for it."

The federal requirements grew out of the voting mishaps in Florida during the 2000 presidential election. Congress passed the Help America Vote Act in 2002. It mandates the "replacement of punch card or levered machines" and provides grant money for the transition to something different.

Washington and Harrisburg are still dillydallying over the specifications of the replacement technology.

Pennsylvania State Department spokesman Brian McDonald said the state will have something for the counties to consider sometime this summer.

Some county officials aren't buying that either.

Kathy Conrad, chief clerk of Clinton County, said "the state has been so round-about about this. I don't know what they are saying at this point."

Clinton County uses both paper ballots and levered voting machines. Conrad said it's not clear to officials there whether or not they will be required to totally replace paper ballots. At minimum, she said, Clinton County voters will be using "one new machine" in each of the county's 17 paper-ballot precincts by the time of the spring 2006 primary.

Like officials in other counties, Conrad does not expect a rollback of the provision.

All told, 23 Pennsylvania counties utilize levered voting machines in whole or in part. The 23 include Westmoreland, Allegheny, Fayette and Erie counties.

"Clearly, we are concerned about it," said Westmoreland County Commissioner Tom Balya. "It creates a financial burden."

Balya said the early word was that the federal government would pick up a third of the cost with the counties footing the rest of the bill.

Balya said he hoped the federal government, through the state, would keep its word to pass along $8,000 per precinct to counties forced to relinquish their levered machines. In that case, Westmoreland County would be looking at expenditures in the $1 million to $1.5 million range, he said.

Balya said "bond proceeds would be the only possible way" to purchase new voting machines, which could number between 620 and 800.

Paula Pedicone, who supervises the Westmoreland County election office, said officials "have always felt the levered machines were very reliable. Unfortunately, the federal government has other ideas. We don't have much of a choice in the matter."

Pedicone said she would "like to see something this summer" from the state as to what exactly could be used to replace the levered voting machines, which have been in use since the early 1960s.

If the state acts promptly, the county will have "enough time" to have things in place by next May, Pedicone said.

The state recently decertified the Unilect electronic touch-screen voting system in use in Greene, Mercer and Beaver counties. A state testing official cited mechanical problems such as frozen screens.

The Unilect system failed a test in 1993. But when Greene County went ahead anyway, it was praised by state officials for being "on the cutting edge," said Greene County Commissioner Pam Snyder.

For this year's spring primary and the fall general election, Greene County voters will use optical scan technology, the same that's used in Somerset, Indiana and 22 other counties, Snyder said.

Michael Coulter, a professor of political science at Grove City College and head of the Mercer County study group that tried to untangle voting difficulties that cropped up in that county in November 2004, said the optical scan technology might be a good bet for counties searching for something new.

The optical scanners seem to be reliable and relatively inexpensive compared to direct recording electronic (DRE) voting systems, Coulter said.

McDonald said the state will attempt to negotiate vendor contracts to keep costs low.

In addition to replacing levered machines, McDonald said the federal government is requiring that optical scanners and DREs be made accessible to handicapped voters, including blind voters. Counties will be eligible for $3,000 per precinct for the upgrades.

McDonald said the state is awaiting word from the federal government about approved systems. The state will take this list and refine it further, he said.

The state spokesman said his department has one vendor's system in mind but a deal with the company has not been finalized.

Laurie Nicholson, who heads the Fayette County election bureau, said, "I'm nervous" about the delay from the state.

"I'd rather keep our levered machines," Nicholson added.

Coutler said in-depth university audits of levered voting machines found "missing gears and levers."

The results, he said, "were not real good.

Mark Wolosik, Election Division manager in Allegheny County, said he was concentrating on Tuesday's balloting and hadn't thought a whole lot about 2006.

One thing he does know: "No one knows how much it's going to cost yet."