N.C. Senate subcommittee agrees to voting machine changes

The Associated Press     23 June 2005

A Senate subcommittee approved a bill Thursday that would set aside $20 million more to help counties purchase voting machine equipment after expected federal and state standards go into effect.

The measure would require counties to use either optical scan machines, electronic machines or paper ballots counted by hand. A federal election commission is expected to provide more details this summer about minimum requirements for those machines.

The bill that cleared the judiciary subcommittee also would require each electronic machine to generate a paper receipt that confirms a voter's choices and provides a backup for counting totals.

Some Republicans on the committee complained that the earlier version provided only $600,000 to help pay for the equipment upgrades.

State elections director Gary Bartlett said it would cost roughly $70 million to ensure machines upgrades statewide to meet federal and state standards. But no more than $52 million in federal and state election grants now are earmarked for those improvements.

Sen. Julia Boseman, D-New Hanover, the subcommittee chairman, said the committee decide to restore the $20 million within an earlier version of the bill to prevent counties from taking on unfunded mandates.

Some voting reform advocates argue the bill still isn't good enough. The legislation doesn't state specifically that voters would be allowed to examine the receipt from electronic machines to confirm their choices as correct.

"The current version is a little bit fuzzy about the paper trail," said Justin Moore, a computer scientist and member of the National Committee for Voting Integrity.

The bill largely follows the recommendations of a special legislative committee that met after a Carteret County voting machine lost 4,438 votes for last November's election due to a computer programming error. The lost votes led to delays in determining a winner for two statewide races.

A larger Senate judiciary panel will resume debate on the bill next week.