Muscatine County gets grant for new voting machines
Muscatine Journal     25 July 2005

MUSCATINE, Iowa n Secretary of State Chet Culver met with Muscatine County officials Saturday and delivered a check for $185,905 to offset most of the county's costs for the purchase of new voting machines.

According to a news release from Culver's office, Muscatine is the third Iowa county to receive funding from a federal and state account designated to help counties meet new federal election requirements defined in the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).

Culver also approved a Polling Place Accessibility Grant that gives $2,500 to township officials who are planning to make the Seventy-Six Township Hall in Letts compliant with federal handicap-accessibility standards.

The voting equipment reimbursement will be applied to the county's purchase of new machines that voters will begin using in the school board elections Monday, Sept. 13.

The new system uses a precinct-based scanning system to record votes in each precinct, which is a change from the county's previous voting system that used a central count method.

Muscatine is one of 53 Iowa counties that still used the central count process in 2004 and needed to make a switch to comply with the HAVA standards.

The precinct-count method is favored for its "second chance" voting, a feature that allows voters to correct ballot errors immediately at the polling site. Studies show that precinct-count systems have a lower error rate and allow election results to be tabulated more quickly.

Culver credited Muscatine County Auditor Leslie Soule for leadership and efficient planning that resulted in the county's purchasing contract with Election Systems and Software and with early decisions that will have the machines up and running for fall 2005 elections.

The funds received Saturday represent the first allocation for the county's purchase of new voting machines. Culver said the county can expect to receive nearly $54,000 in additional HAVA funds, and Soule said the second allocation will apply to the purchase of handicap-accessible machines. HAVA requires that all voting sites offer accessible systems to allow individuals to vote privately and independently.

In Letts, township trustees and a local boy scout troop are participating in the project that will replace doors and create two hard-surface parking areas to make the Seventy-Six Township Hall compliant with federal accessibility standards. The total project cost is $3,200.

For more information on HAVA and its implementation in counties throughout Iowa, visit the HAVA section on the Secretary of State's Web site: http://www.sos.state.ia.us.