Clerk: More personnel needed to meet mandate
By Stella Davis      Carlsbad Current-Argus
May 28, 2005

 
CARLSBAD ? A new federal law requires that handicap accessible voting machines be placed in all polling places by 2006, which means more work and additional personnel for the county?s Bureau of Elections, a county official said.

Eddy County Clerk Jean Blenden told the County Commission during its final budget hearing this week that she will need an additional employee dedicated to help service and troubleshoot the county?s electronic polling machines and new handicap accessible machines for visually- and hearing-impaired voters.

The commission approved her request for another employee, with the understanding that the position might be eliminated if the federal government delays the mandate.

?The federal Help America Act dictates that by 2006, each jurisdiction has to have total handicap accessible voting machines at all polling places. In our case, we will need 43 machines ? one for each polling place, plus two for our early voting sites,? Blenden said.
She said that the federal government has allocated a certain amount of money to each state to purchase the machines, and New Mexico?s secretary of state will be responsible for purchasing them.

She said the National Association of Counties is seeking a two-year delay to meet the federal mandate.

?They believe this is not the time to implement this,? Blenden said. ?The specifications for the voting machines have not yet been written. Why would you want to purchase the machines if the requirements for them are not out?

?I think there needs to be a revision and a need to catch up with the times to provide polling access for the handicapped, but the government should not spend money unnecessarily,? she said. ?I think the specifications for the machines need to be out first before the state and federal government goes out and possibly purchases the wrong machines.?

Blenden said that in addition to the federal requirement, Gov. Bill Richardson has also mandated election reforms that include a verifiable audit trail of ballots. She said Eddy County is ahead of the curve and has had the verifiable-audit capability for several years.

She said the county?s voting machines handle that task, and the machines have worked well completing election returns quickly and accurately.

?The county purchased the Optech Eagle voting machines about 10 years ago, and we really love them,? she said. ?They are good, very good machines that give speedy returns and provide the verifiable audit trail that the governor has mandated.?

She told the commission that when the machines were purchased, the county did its homework and waited until the machines were second generation.

?Anytime they build a new machine, they have bugs in them that need to be worked out,? she said. ?We waited until the company had worked them out. We did the right thing in waiting because the second generation of the machine they manufactured turned out to be very good machines.?

Blenden said in her opinion, it would be in the best interest of the state and its 33 counties to wait for the second generation of the handicap accessible machines to come out. However, Blenden said she realizes if the National Association of Counties is unsuccessful in delaying the federal mandate, the state will have to purchase the machines.

She added if the federal government enforces its mandate, the county will need to have someone trained in the election process and the operation of the voting machines, which cannot be integrated into the county?s Optech voting machine system.