After long delay, voting machines may be in county's near future 
2005-07-14 
By Nick Claussen 
Athens NEWS  

It appears likely that Athens County will have new voting machines at some or all of its polling locations in November.

While the Athens County Board of Elections did not make any decisions on Wednesday about when the new voting machines will be implemented, three of the four members said they favor at least putting new voting machines in some, and possibly all, of the locations.

The debate over new voting machines for the county has been long and contentious. The Board of Elections voted once to choose the Diebold Elections Systems touch-screen machines and then was told by the Ohio Secretary of State's office that another vote must be held. The second time, the board split 2-2 with Democrats Susan Gwinn and Bill Lavelle favoring the Election Systems & Software optical-scan machines and Republicans Richard Mottl Howard Stevens favoring the Diebold optical-scan machines. After Ohio Secretary of State C. Kenneth Blackwell broke the tie and ed Diebold for Athens County, he ruled that Athens County and all of the counties in the state would have to vote for a third time on new voting equipment.

At the third vote, which included the Diebold touch-screen machines as in the first vote, Stevens had a family emergency and could not attend, but the board moved ahead anyway (against Mottl's opposition) and voted 2-1 for the Election Systems & Software optical-scan machines.

On Wednesday, Todd Mullin of Election Systems & Software met with the board to discuss whether the county would like to use the optical-scan machines for the first time in the November election or in next spring's primary election.

Mottl expressed concerns about using the new equipment in November and only having four months to get the staff and poll workers trained.

If the board rushes into using the new equipment, it could be disastrous at the election, Mottl warned.

Gwinn suggested that if the board did not want to fully implement the system in November, perhaps the board could install the system in just a few precincts as a test run.

Mullin said the company could provide systems and training for up to 10 precincts for a test run, if that is what the board wanted to do.

Board member Stevens said he originally believed the county should wait until the 2006 primary to implement the new equipment (because primaries traditionally have lighter voter turnout). He said Wednesday, however, that he does not have a problem with using the new voting machines in November.

"I think the sooner, the better," Stevens said.

Board member Lavelle pointed out that because there are few contested local races in the November election and because there will be heavily contested races for statewide offices in the spring primary, it might be better to use the voting machines for the first time in November.

"I suggest we do them all," Lavelle said.

Mottl said that he did not want to vote on the issue until he had seen a timeline from Election Systems & Software about when it will have the machines here and when it can train the staff and poll workers.

Mullin said he will provide a timeline soon, and the board decided to vote on the issue in August, most likely at a special meeting.

The board also asked Election System & Software to bring voting equipment and sample ballots to the Athens County Fair so that area residents can see the new machines and learn about using them. The board voted to have Board of Elections staff members work at the booths, too, and answer questions from the public.