Freeholders approve voting machine funds: Deal between elections superintendent and activists precedes decision

Thursday, July 14, 2005

By PAUL BRUBAKER
of The Montclair Times

The Essex Board of Chosen Freeholders unanimously approved a $7.5 million bond ordinance to buy new voting machines at the Hall of Records in Newark on Wednesday, July 13, but not before a surprise pact was made between Essex County Superintendent of Elections Carmine Casciano and Montclair voting-rights advocate Katherine Joyce.

Casciano agreed to provide an opportunity for five voting machine manufacturers to present federally certified models to the freeholders as alternatives to Sequoia Voting Systems? Advantage model. Essex County has been negotiating to buy 700 Advantage units.

In return, Joyce and other activists agreed not to do what they did in June, when they convinced a majority of freeholders to vote against authorizing the $7.5 million bond due to the citizens? concerns about the Sequoia Advantage being incapable of providing paper documentation for the votes cast.

Tensions ran high during the June meeting. In the face of the public?s blitz against the ordinance, county election officials urged that the funds needed to be approved as soon as possible.

Federal law instituted a January 2006 deadline for counties to receive a 75 percent federal reimbursement of the cost of the machines, and state law prohibits the use of pull-lever machines by the same deadline.

?There is a gun to your head,? Casciano told the freeholders during the June meeting, emphasizing that 2,600 county elections board workers need to be trained by January.

But it was a kinder, gentler Casciano who came to the freeholders? meeting on Wednesday night, July 13.

He and Joyce quietly reached an agreement in the hallway outside the freeholders? room, not far from where Casciano had been in a confrontation last month with Joyce and other voting-rights activists.

?This is to me a great example of when you welcome citizens into the process?it?s a win/win for everybody,? said 3rd District Freeholder Carol Clark.

Fifth District Freeholder Ralph Caputo called the agreement ?a lesson we should take to the universities.?

But being that time was on the activists? side, did they give up an advantage in stepping out of the way of the funding vote?

Joyce said making the agreement with Casciano was a matter of priorities.

?We don?t mind the county funding [the purchase of new machines],? she said. ?Our objection is to a specific machine.?

On that point, Joyce and those aligned with her face an uphill climb since Casciano will ultimately choose the model for the county?s new voting machines.

The county has been negotiating a contract with Sequoia to purchase 700 Advantage machines, which Casciano favors.

?I?m still leaning heavily toward the Sequoia,? Casciano said, citing that the machine has proved it works in the field.

The Sequoia Advantage is a full-faced model that displays the entire ballot in the same way as a pull-lever machine, which is another big priority for Casciano.

Sequoia officials have added to their pending contract with Essex a commitment to retrofitting the machines with printing devices in order to make them compliant with a new state mandate for a voter-verifiable printed record.

The printing technology is still being developed, according to Sequoia Vice President Alfred Charles.

It is expected to be complete and certified by the federal government in the next 12 months, Charles said.

The retrofitting cost would be paid by the county and reimbursed by the state, according to the new law.

Perhaps the biggest advantage the Advantage has over any competitors is that it is the only full-faced machine certified by the state Attorney General?s Office.

Casciano asked Joyce if she had five machines in mind to be reviewed.

?We can come up with them,? she said.

Among them will be optical scanning machines that read ballots in the same fashion as standardized tests.

While they are favorite among voting-rights advocates, Casciano said, ?You?re going to have to break my legs to get me to say yes [to optical scanners.]?

But Joyce has her objections to the Sequoia Advantage, including her concern that its computerized technology is more than a decade old.

?I may be comfortable driving a 12-year-old car, but I wouldn?t tell you to buy one,? Joyce said.

Casciano said that he hoped to hold the vendors? presentations before the freeholders within the next two weeks.

After the freeholders? vote this past Wednesday, Montclair resident Alan Smith, a voting-rights advocate, was ambivalent about the deal.

?Hopefully, it will create some transparency,? Smith said of the county?s ion process for new voting machines.

?I still want to know why [Essex County officials] are so overzealous about the Sequoia machines.?