New voting machine uncontested
By Brandon Keat    Pittsburgh TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, August 12, 2005

The list of electronic voting machines approved by the state for next year's elections has grown to one with a deadline looming for counties to order the new systems.

A touch-screen machine made in California is the only one of its kind approved so far by the Pennsylvania State Department under new federal guidelines requiring states to modernize voting systems by next year's primaries.

Pennsylvania has tested several other machines and plans to test more this month, Department of State spokesman Brian McDonald said Thursday. A full list of approved machines is expected to be released by fall.

For local elections officials, the clock is ticking. Counties must place orders by Dec. 31 to get $8,000 per precinct in federal money to help pay for the new machines.

Allegheny and Beaver are among 24 counties in the state that use lever machines. Both must ditch their current systems under new state requirements.

Counties that use paper ballots may stick with their current systems, but if they opt to change after the Dec. 31 deadline, they would miss out on federal money.

"If you have a huge county like Allegheny (with 2,800 machines) that isn't presented with a slate of choices, what are they going to do? Make a quick decision just to get the money?" Michael Shamos, a Carnegie Mellon University computer-science professor who tests voting machines for the state, asked yesterday. "As it is now, they only have one choice."

That choice is a machine made by AccuPoll Inc., of Tustin, Calif. The machine was approved by the state last week.

The system allows voters to check their ballots on paper receipts, which are redeposited into the machine in case hand recounts are needed. The machine was used in Democratic Party Committee endorsement elections in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties.

The machines are used in a few counties in Texas and have been certified in about a dozen states, said AccuPoll Chief Operating Officer Frank Wiebe.

County officials say they want to see the full list of approved machines before deciding which to buy. For now, they're waiting and watching the calendar.

"I think it will be difficult, sure. It will be for everyone," Allegheny County Elections Director Mark Wolosik said. But in the end, "it has to be doable."

Counties around the country are in similar predicament, said Justin Moore, a voting-machine specialist at Duke University in North Carolina.

Elections officials say they not only must worry about getting new machines ordered and shipped delivery time on the AccuPoll, for example, is 75 to 90 days. They also must be concerned about training poll workers and the public in the use of the systems, Wiebe said.

"I'm starting to get a little bit concerned," Westmoreland County Elections Director Paula Pedicone said. "This is a very large undertaking and, of course, we want it to be done diligently. We have a lot to look at, and this is a very big decision."

Mercer County Elections Director Tom Rookey said he knows of 32 electronic machines on the market.

So far, one has been certified. Another machine, the Avante Vote-Trakker, has been rejected, said McDonald of the Department of State.

"Right now, there is one yes, one no and 30 question marks," he said. "I am worried that if those certifications don't start springing clear soon, then we are going to be shoved into a very small time window."

Although counties with lever machines are required to change their systems, counties with paper ballots have a choice, McDonald said.

They can keep their systems but must add one electronic-voting machine to each precinct to meet new federal standards requiring access for people with disabilities. Counties that opt for that route get only $4,000 per precinct in federal money.

Beaver County spokesman Brian Hayden said officials plan to switch from paper ballots to electronic machines but are concerned there won't be enough time.

Beaver, Mercer and Greene counties all previously used the Unilect Patriot electronic-voting machine before it was decertified by the state earlier this year.

"It's a matter of maybe you order at the end of the year, but how long is it going to take to supply everybody?" Hayden said. "Counties all over the country are going to be buying machines."

How much local money will go into buying the new machines still isn't known, elections officials say.

Butler County Elections Director Regis Young said he expects the switch to electronic machines will cost $1.3 million to $1.4 million and federal money to total $950,000.

Other election officials paint a darker picture.

Fayette County Elections Director Laurie Nicholson estimates that when officials factor in training and other expenses, the county must budget more than $1 million to modernize systems.

Washington County Elections Director Larry Spahr said he estimates that changing from a punch-card to an electronic system will cost $6.3 million over the next five years.

"Our backs are pushed to the wall no doubt about it" he said.