Judge's ruling extends voting machine deadline

Directive for counties to choose new system by mid-May temporarily blocked

Associated Press    03 June 2005

COLUMBUS - A judge's ruling Thursday that extends the time 32 counties including Summit have to choose a voting machine system for next year's elections allows the parties in a lawsuit against Ohio's chief elections official to work out their differences.

Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Dale Crawford granted a temporary block of Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell's directive for all 88 counties to choose a new voting system by mid-May.

The new deadline is Sept. 15 for the 32 counties that joined the lawsuit filed last month by Election Systems & Software, an Omaha, Neb.-based voting machine maker. The deadline is temporary, pending an overall settlement. Crawford scheduled another hearing for Aug. 15.

The counties want a choice of touch-screen electronic voting machines. Currently, only a touch-screen machine made by North Canton-based Diebold Election Systems has met federal and state certification requirements.

ES&S claims Blackwell's certification deadlines were unfair.

``We want to demonstrate to voters that we can choose a system instead of getting one by default,'' said Matthew Damschroder, elections director for Franklin County. The county, with 845,000 registered voters, is the largest of the 32 in the lawsuit.

On Wednesday, Blackwell's office decided it could extend the deadlines, suggesting Sept. 15 for ing vendors and Nov. 1 for certification by state and federal officials, Blackwell spokesman Carlo LoParo said.

Blackwell is optimistic that an agreement can be reached.

ES&S says it will meet certification by the end of August. Blackwell wants systems to be in place for November's municipal elections and says that new systems must be on line by Jan. 1 in case of a special congressional election.

The federal Help America Vote Act requires that new systems be in place for the first federal elections of 2006. Congress passed the act in response to the 2000 election debacle in Florida. The federal government is paying $115 million for the upgrade.

A sticking point is the 56 counties that have already ed vendors. ES&S wants the agreement to allow all counties to pick from any vendor certified by Nov. 1, said ES&S spokeswoman Jill Friedman-Wilson.

Blackwell opposes reopening the process to all 88 counties because the 56 that have ed a vendor are eager to set up new systems.

The counties that sued are Allen, Auglaize, Brown, Champaign, Clermont, Clinton, Delaware, Fayette, Franklin, Hamilton, Knox, Lake, Logan, Madison, Mahoning, Meigs, Monroe, Noble, Ottawa, Pickaway, Preble, Putnam, Ross, Sandusky, Seneca, Shelby, Summit, Tuscarawas, Union, Washington, Williams and Wyandot.