Commissioners await guidance on voting machines
By BRIAN CALLAWAY
Bucks County Courier Times    21 July 2005

Demonstrators armed with signs and scads of questions about voting machines dominated Wednesday's meeting of Bucks County's commissioners.

Bucks' Eisenhower-era voting machines could be replaced after this year's general election because of federal and state laws passed in the wake of 2000's disputed presidential contest.

That possibility has residents angry or fearful. They came to Wednesday's meeting looking for answers.

What do the laws really say? Can't new machines lead to new problems? Is the county really required to get rid of its old machines?

"We don't know, we don't know. We - don't - know," county Commissioner Jim Cawley said at one point. "What we are waiting for is clear guidance."

Attendees were looking for more than that, though.

"We cannot just say we will wait for the state to tell us their interpretation," said Mary Ann Gould, who helped found the Bucks County Coalition for Voting Integrity because of concerns about new machines. "Our vote is too important."

Gould and others worry that Bucks could get new electronic voting machines that could be easily tampered with and disenfranchise voters.

Before Wednesday's meeting, her group held a quiet demonstration - about 20 people held signs reading slogans such as "Protect Your Vote."
 

Comments from residents also are usually scarce at commissioners' meetings, but leaders were peppered with questions for more than a half-hour Wednesday.

Guy Matthews, the county's solicitor, released a memo last week saying Bucks' voting machines don't meet legal requirements for things like handicapped accessibility and "manual audit capacity" - a paper trail.

He also said Bucks could be sued by the attorney general if it doesn't replace its machines this year.

Gould and others have challenged those assertions, though, saying the new election laws are too murky.

County leaders said again Wednesday they don't want to replace the machines because that would cost millions of dollars and they believe the old machines work fine.

They also said they would support calls to delay obtaining new machines, and hope the state or federal government will loosen its requirements for things like lever machines.

But Dave Sanko, the county's chief operating officer, said Bucks still has to continue considering new machines or it could get tied up in expensive litigation.