Paper ballots among options facing Carteret
July 29,2005
JANNETTE PIPPIN
Jacksonville DAILY NEWS

BEAUFORT - Candidates for Carteret County's town elections in November may have to wait a few extra hours to learn if they've won or lost if the county's Board of Elections and Board of Commissioners can't reach an agreement over leasing voting equipment.

Currently, the Board of Elections is looking at three short-term options for the fall election, one being a return to hand-counted paper ballots.

The Board of Elections must choose an alternative voting system after deciding earlier this month to no longer use the current electronic system, which has been at the center of controversy since November 2004 when more than 4,000 votes were lost.

The two other alternatives being considered include leasing either optical scan equipment or direct recording electronic equipment such as the touch-screen system now used.

According to correspondence this week from the state Board of Elections, leasing equipment will require the support of the Carteret County Board of Commissioners.

"If there is a decision to lease either a direct record electronic or an optical scan voting system, the county Board of Elections and county commissioners must be in agreement," wrote N.C. Board of Elections Executive Director Gary Bartlett in a July 26 letter to the county.

If there is not a consensus of the two boards for renting either type of system, then Carteret County voters would see paper ballots the next time they go to the polls.

Bartlett clarified this point in a letter to Carteret County Manager John Langdon and local election officials regarding the decision to abandon the county's existing voting system.

The three-member Carteret County Board of Elections met July 12 and voted to no longer use the Patriot Electronic Voting System it purchased from the California-based UniLect Corp. nearly 10 years ago. The UniLect system has been in question in Carteret County since November when 4,438 votes were permanently lost during the early voting period due to a programming oversight concerning how many ballots could be stored.

The Carteret elections board said it doesn't want to election tainted by uncertainty over voting equipment. The board will meet again today to reaffirm its decision due to questions over public notice of the July 12 meeting.

Meanwhile, Langdon is continuing to gather as much information as possible for the Board of Commissioners, which will meet again Aug. 8.

Langdon said the issue is frustrating and an example of the county Board of Commissioners having to provide the funding for a Board of Elections decision it had no say in.

"There's no question in my mind that they have the authority (to make the decision). It may be frustrating, but they can do it," he said.

Adding to the frustration is the timing of the July 12 action, which came just two weeks after the county had finalized the 2005-06 budget.

The commissioners fully funded the Board of Elections' budget request and now must find additional funding for an alternative voting system just months before the next election, Langdon said.

The commissioners haven't met since the July 12 decision, but the Bartlett letter does give the county some revised information as to the cost of the use of paper ballots.

Initially, the Carteret Board of Elections indicated that paper ballots, the least-preferred option, would cost an additional $100,000 to $125,000 with increased manpower.

Bartlett estimated an additional cost of $33,865 for a paper ballot election, which would put the cost more in line with that of leasing equipment.

But no matter what alternative is chosen, it's going to cost the county, Langdon said.

"Whatever other system is used, it's is going to cost more than UniLect," he said, noting that $25,000 was budgeted this year based on the expected use of the UniLect system.

The Carteret County Board of Elections plans to decide on an alternative sometime in August and sees the move as a means of restoring voter confidence in the election process.

"The voters of Carteret County can be certain that the Carteret Board of Election will give the voters an elections method that is a necessary first step in rebuilding the voter's confidence in the our county's elections and do so at the very least cost," said election board Chairman Ed Pond in a response to Bartlett's letter.