Voting machines won't stand up, Bucks solicitor warns
Group backing lever devices plans to protest tonight.

By Pervaiz Shallwani   The Allentown Morning Call   20 July 2005

Bucks County's voting machines ''would not comply'' with state or federal laws, and the county should move forward on a mandate to replace them by the end of the year.

That was the word commissioners got Friday after further review by their solicitor. In a two-paragraph memo he says that as the law reads, the current requirements ''exceed the capabilities of our lever machines.''

At issue are voting machines, some of which were purchased in the 1950s, at more than 300 county polling places.

Under the Help America Vote Act, passed by Congress and signed by President Bush in 2002, the county's machines do not meet requirements for handicapped accessibility and do not have features that alert voters if they have missed casting votes in all races.

Commissioners have applied for a $3 million state grant to help purchase new machines. If the county receives the grant, the commissioners estimate they also would have to provide up to $5 million to buy the machines.

Under the act, commissioners must buy new machines by Dec. 31 and train elections officials to operate them for the spring primary.

County commissioners have maintained the machines are fine and replacing them is an unneeded expense.

''I think what they are waiting to see is what machines are approved by the state,'' solicitor Guy Matthews said. ''I tend to think what they approve is going to have capabilities that our machines don't have.''

The county has been told the state will have a list by September, Matthews said.

The memo comes on the heels of a forum last month where a local grass-roots organization put the commissioners on notice that they need to be careful what kind of machines they purchase.

The Bucks County Coalition for Voting Integrity held the forum before a packed crowd, outlining some of the pitfalls of voting machines currently available.

''We understand that may be the solicitor's opinion. We don't agree with it,'' group Co-Chairwoman Mary Ann Gould said Friday. ''We are having our own team of lawyers review this.''

Gould said her group is planning to stage a protest tonight at the meeting of the Bucks County commissioners, which will be held at a county park in Revere. Gould said her group disagrees with the conclusions of the report, and believes the old lever machines do not have to be scrapped. Members of the coalition plan to ask Matthews to justify the assertions of his report ''line by line,'' Gould said.

''Under the law, you are not required to do this; you would just not get the funding,'' she said. ''They would just have to have some handicap option at each voting place. We are in support of that.''

In the memo, Matthews gave the commissioners some hope when he said the state is still reviewing the law's requirements.

''Ultimately, we will need to examine the capabilities of the voting systems approved by the commonwealth and determine whether our lever machines can be made to meet the minimum approved capabilities,'' Matthews said.