Time's running out
Posted: Thursday, Aug 11, 2005

The Bluefield Daily Telegraph

Clock ticking on new Mercer voting process

The clock is ticking to for West Virginia to get its voting machines in compliance with federal regulations. Let's hope we'll be ready.

The federal Help America Vote Act requires each county have one handicapped accessible voting machine in each polling place by the first of next year. West Virginia Secretary of State Betty Ireland put out bids last month for the machines. Although she is demanding a paper trail, she is not requiring touch-screen machines.

The state is also seeking bids to replace all voting machines with optical scan machines.

The move to modernize our voting system comes not a moment too soon. Congress has required counties that use punch card or lever voting machines to replace them by Jan. 1 or conduct very expensive voter education programs.

In the Mountain State, three counties use lever machines and 12 counties - including Mercer - use punch card voting systems.

The punch card voting machines have been called a nightmare many times by those waiting around for results on election night. All too often, surrounding counties, including McDowell and Tazewell, announce their final but unofficial vote totals while Mercer County is still counting - and counting, and counting, and counting, often into the early morning hours.

The right and privilege to vote should not be taken lightly. And individuals who invest their time in learning about the candidates' platforms and then going to the polls to vote deserve to have their votes counted in an accurate and timely manner.

We certainly believe the new machines will help.

Secretary Ireland met with county commissioners at a meeting Monday to discuss the issue. "The great preponderance, I'd say, are ready to go with the optical scanners, and one electronic machine per precinct," she said.

If county and state government officials believe optical scanners are the best machines - for accuracy and efficiency - to tally votes, we support their decision wholeheartedly.

However, we are concerned about the looming deadline. Bids for the voting machines are tentatively set to open in mid-September, and only manufacturers with machines certified by the state Election Commission will be able to bid.

With bids going out in September and the deadline for the machines to be in place by Jan. 1, the four-and-a-half-month window of opportunity to get the machines ordered, manufactured and installed seems like it may be cutting it close.

We hope we're wrong, and that the machines are in place - working perfectly - days, if not weeks, before the deadline.

We remind our officials to bear in mind January is not that far off, and we need to kick it into high gear to make sure our new voting machines are in place and ready to go when 2006 rolls around.

While we commend Secretary of State Ireland for the work she has already accomplished in preparing West Virginia for the new voting machines, we also encourage her to stay the course so the Mountain State will be ready to comply with the new federal election laws come Jan. 1.