Clark, Diebold agree on printers

8/11/2005  Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal

BY LEESHA FAULKNER

Daily Journal

TUPELO - Lee County Administrator Ronnie Bell continued to crunch numbers and field telephone calls Wednesday afternoon in an examination of Secretary of State Eric Clark's offer of voting machines.

Before the afternoon ended, Clark sweetened the pot for many counties with an announcement that he had signed an agreement with Diebold Election Systems to buy printers for each of the touch-screen machines the state will purchase later this year.

"All Mississippians must have confidence that their votes are accurately counted," Clark said in a prepared statement. "These printers will give voters an additional level of comfort as they use the new, more accurate touch-screen machines."

The push for the new machines is due to the Help America Vote Act passed by Congress a couple of years ago. HAVA's purposes are to ensure every voter that their ballots are counted and that polling places are fully handicapped accessible.

In Mississippi, voting equipment in more than 75 of the 82 counties must be upgraded to comply with the law.

Many officials and voters have questioned whether their votes will be counted as Clark said they would be. Officials have called this a "voter-verified audit trail." A clear plastic window on the machine should display the voter's choice.

After the voter completes the process, the printed ballot rolls into a locked canister kept inside the machine for use in the event of a recount.

Mississippi law and federal law don't require the paper trail, but 25 other states do. Clark had promised the printers, but only after Congress fully funded the Help America Vote Act for the third year.

While the move might satisfy some voters' questions, it doesn't help Bell and other county administrators who worry about the costs. Counties face an Aug. 19 deadline to decide to become a part of the statewide voting machine purchase. So far, 34 counties have joined the plan.

Wednesday afternoon, Bell continued to seek information and put together cost estimates for Lee County supervisors to consider at their regular meeting Monday. Clark allocated Lee County 126 machines on the state purchase plan.

Lee County will need at least 175 to avoid long lines, Bell explained, if you consider four minutes per person per machine. That means the county will have to buy 49 more machines.

The exact contract price depends on the number of counties that opt into the program, but a round number of $3,200 per machine - before the addition of the printers - had been the number most used. At just the base, not counting installation and other fees, Lee County faces $188,800.

"I don't know yet," Bell said when asked for his best estimate of the total cost to the county. "I haven't finished with the numbers."