State likely to meet deadline on voting machines, Ireland says
By Phil Kabler    Charleston Gazette    11 August 2005

Secretary of State Betty Ireland said Wednesday she?s confident the state will meet a Jan. 1, 2006, deadline to have voting systems in all 55 counties that comply with federal Help America Vote Act requirements.

?We have to have the machines in place by Jan. 1 ? which we will be able to do,? she said Wednesday after a brief meeting of the state Election Commission.

Commissioners had planned to vote on whether to certify a voting machine manufactured by Hart InterCivic for complying with state election law.
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That motion was tabled because the company did not have a machine capable of printing a paper ballot ready for consultants to evaluate prior to the meeting.

A law passed in April requires that any electronic voting machines used in the state must be able to print paper ballots, to provide a verifiable ?paper trail.?

To date, no paper-ballot machines have been certified by the Election Commission, although three major manufacturers, including Hart, have scheduled state evaluations for paper-ballot machines between now and Sept. 2.

Only manufacturers with certified machines will be able to bid on a request for proposals for electronic voting machines, with a bid opening tentatively set for mid-September.

Under the voting law, each of the nearly 2,000 precincts in the state must have by Jan. 1 at least one electronic voting machine that can used by vision-impaired voters without assistance. Also by Jan. 1, all counties using punch-card or lever balloting must replace those systems.

Ireland, who met with county commissioners at their annual meeting Monday in Chester, said the majority agreed with her recommendation to at least initially replace the punch-card and lever systems in use in 15 counties with optical-scan ballots.

?The great preponderance, I?d say, are ready to go with the optical scanners, and one electronic machine per precinct,? she said.

The state has about $20 million of federal funding available to comply with the HAVA requirements.

Ireland said she believes it is prudent for West Virginia to go with proven optical-scan technology initially, and leave it to other states to determine what other electronic voting systems are ? or aren?t ? reliable.