Clark hustling to ease concerns over voting machines

Picayune Item
Saturday, August 6, 2005 5:28 PM CDT

JACKSON (AP) - The secretary of state's office says 20 counties have signed up to obtain the new touch-screen voting machine system.

No counties had opted out of the statewide program by Friday, said David Blount, spokesman for the secretary of state's office.

Counties have until Aug. 19 to notify the secretary of state's office of whether they will be part of state's purchase of about 5,000 voting machines from Diebold Election Systems.

As of Friday, the counties that have joined in the program were Alcorn, Amite, Attala, Choctaw, Clay, Covington, Itawamba, Kemper, Leake, Lincoln, Newton, Quitman, Smith, Sunflower, Tallahatchie, Tishomingo, Wayne, Webster, Winston and Yazoo.
  

Secretary of State Eric Clark has been hustling since June to sell the program, ease concerns some have about the company he ed and counter a public relations effort by rivals to sell their systems to the counties.

"Once they learn about the machines and what's fiscally responsible for the counties, they're choosing to be a part of the state procurement," Blount said about the counties.

Blount said many concerns are being alleviated as questions get answered.

Critics complain the Diebold devices don't provide a paper record for voters to verify how their ballots are cast.

"I know that considerable pressure, and in my opinion rightfully so, is being applied to have a machine that can provide a paper trail," said Albert Gore, chairman of the Oktibbeha County Democratic Executive Committee.

"Brand name is not important. (The state needs) a machine that will give an honest and fair election," Gore said.

Clark has called the Diebold polling computers "the most accurate and secure voting machines made anywhere." He acknowledges they don't have printers to show voters paper copies so they can verify how they cast their ballots.

Clark will work to have the state buy the necessary printing attachments with federal funds he expects to be allocated later this year, Blount said.

The Mississippi Democratic Party is not formally getting involved in the fight, said communications director Sam Hall.

"The party leadership statewide is not stepping into that," Hall said. "This is something that should be handled at the local level by the county supervisors and the circuit clerks."

Counties opting out of the state plan, Blount said, take the risk of having to pay for their new machines without being fully reimbursed with the federal funds Mississippi gets to upgrade its voting system.

The 5,164 Diebold computers will cost $15 million, according to the Clark's office, with 95 percent funded by federal money appropriated from the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and 5 percent by state matching funds.

The federal law was prompted by the 2000 presidential election fiasco, which had to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court urged states to improve how they count votes.

In response, Congress passed the HAVA law in 2002 to require states to modernize their voting technology and get rid of punch-card voting machines. The punch cards were the center of the disputed 2000 election between George Bush and Al Gore.