Feds may pay for new voting machines
Alison Hawkes, Beaver County and Allegheny Times 06/28/2005
 
HARRISBURG - Three western Pennsylvania counties - Beaver, Greene, and Mercer - are closer to having federal funds pay for new voting machines after the state recently decertified their electronic machines.

A suspect undercount in last year's presidential election led to state officials tossing out the use of the UniLect Patriot, an electronic touch-screen machine that has set off widespread concern about the possibility of glitches or electronic voter fraud.

A state advisory board, charged with the task of making Pennsylvania compliant with new federal law that arose out of the 2000 Florida debacle, recommended Monday that the three counties be eligible for $8,000 per precinct to buy a new version of electronic machine instead of $3,000 per precinct for upgrades.

For Beaver County, that amounts to more than $1 million.

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Pedro Cortez will make the final decision on the recommendation.

That same $8,000 per precinct will be available to all other counties upgrading from lever and punch-card machines to electronic machines. A majority of Pennsylvania counties use lever machines and must make a transition by the end of the year to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act.

But they are still awaiting state decisions on which machines will be certified for use, a process that will probably be ongoing until September, Department of State spokesman Brian McDonald said.

UniLect is one of the companies applying for certification, he said.

"It would be pretty hard to fathom they would come back with the same machine," McDonald said. "It already failed two examinations. ... It's going to be a completely new machine or the machine with some modifications to it."

A UniLect company official did not return a call for comment.

Bucks County officials have complained about having to get rid of their 50-year-old lever machines, saying the equipment works fine.

But for Beaver County, the money is welcome news.

Beaver County Commissioner Joe Spanik wonders whether the federal money will cover the full cost of new machines.

"We hear it's going to cost two, three or four million dollars for new machines," he said.

The state plans to arrange contracts for lower prices on voting machines. But McDonald said his department is making no promises that all costs will be covered under the $8,000-per-precinct grant. Additional federal funds for new machines have been promised but not yet allocated by Congress.

Beaver also hasn't ruled out the possibility of going back to touch-screen machines, even after its travails with the devices. Spanik said a lengthy recount this spring over a closely contested judge seat revealed the perils of an optical-scan machine, which has voters fill out ballots that are then digitally scanned into an electronic machine. The state paid for their use in the primary.

"We haven't made the decision yet," Spanik said. "With the touch-screen machines, the election was over in three days."

The three western counties are also still awaiting word on whether the state will also pay for this year's November election because state certification of new machines is coming so late in the year.