Election equipment needs more space
Officials also told they need better storage for machines

By Nancy Bowman   Dayton Daily News   15 July 2005

TROY | Miami County election officials will tell county commissioners next week they not only need more space for operations, but more money to properly store $1 million in new touch screen voting equipment.
The elections board was scrambling Thursday to come up with an alternative to keeping the equipment, which was delivered June 30, in the Hobart Center for County Government basement.

That site was rejected this week by representatives of the Ohio Secretary of State and equipment vendor Diebold Election Equipment during machine testing. The representatives said the area has too much dust, shows signs of past flooding and raises security concerns.

"You have a dust issue over there, and I don't like it. I suggest you do something about it quickly, but they are your units," said Keir Holeman, Diebold project manager for Miami County.

After sorting through options, the board agreed to wrap the 388 voting machines in a plastic material, as early as today, to reduce dust exposure. Elections Director Steve Quillen said only two people have keys to the storage room. The machines will be moved to the elections office at the nearby county Courthouse as soon as possible.

The board agreed to buy a $17,700 moveable shelving system to store the machines at the board office. Because the storage system is available through a state purchasing contract for governments, a more time-consuming bidding process won't be needed. A system vendor said installation would come four to five weeks after a purchase order is received.

The board will ask commissioners to approve the money and buy the system in a Tuesday morning meeting. All four board members said they would attend to emphasize growing space needs. "I hope things change," said board member Kelly Gillis. "This is getting to be ridiculous."

A formal request for added space was given to commissioners in October, and board members have discussed daily working, security, privacy and other concerns with commissioners since. Options mentioned for more space include a meeting room next to the board office and another room recently vacated down the hall.

The touch screen machines were bought with Help America Vote Act money and are scheduled for their first election in November.