County council wants company to HAVA heart

By Christine Walsh    Monticello Herald Journal   18 May 2005

White County owes over $48,000 for its election equipment, and county council members want to know why.

Because of HAVA, (Help America Vote Act of 2002), which requires that voting equipment used in an election for federal office meet federal minimum standards, county officials decided to replace the punch card system with an electronic scanning system.

Although they can find no record of it, several councilman believe that a representative from Fidlar Election Company, which sold the voting machines, told them that the equipment would cost them nothing.

County officials expected an $8,000-per-precinct reimbursement from HAVA (Help America Vote Act of 2002) funds; the county has received only $3,192 per precinct. Although HAVA funds come from the federal government, the state administers them.

The county bought one scanner per precinct plus one for a backup for a total of 24 machines.

The state paid Fidlar $73,416. White County now owes Fidlar $48,084, the shortfall of the reimbursement.

According to White County Clerk Bruce Lambert, the election equipment was originally to cost the county a total of $150,000, but Fidlar gave a 10-percent discount, bringing it to $135,000. Of that amount, the county made a 10-percent down payment of $13,500 in February 2004.

?We?re not going to act on paying this balance until someone [from Fidlar] comes to a council meeting and explains why there?s such a difference between what they advised and [what actually happened],? Council President Jim Mann said.

According to election board representative Jay Spry, it was state election board officials who told the county council it would not cost the county anything to election equipment.

?I don?t think Fidlar changed anything ? it was the availability of funds,? Spry said. ?The reimbursement idea did not come from Fidlar ? that was all the federal government. They just didn?t disburse as much money as they said they were going to.?

Lambert plans to informally poll neighboring counties to see if they are encountering the same problem.

In unrelated business, the council, approved a request from the Highway Department to transfer $40,000 from Equipment Operator to Stone, $40,000 from Foreman to Stone, $10,000 from Drag Operators to Building Repair and $11,000 from Mechanics & Welder to Building Repair.

The board also approved the airport?s request to transfer $270.68 between funds.