Panel deadlocks over voting machines
Friday, August 12, 2005
By SALLIE OWEN    Mobile Register
MONTGOMERY A state election panel deadlocked again Thursday, continuing uncertainty for counties that must upgrade voting machines by next year to conform with a federal mandate.

The Alabama Electronic Voting Committee split 2-2 on motions to certify one batch of machines and to settle on 2002 federal standards.

Most Alabama counties must only get enough new equipment to place a machine for disabled voters at each polling place. 
 

But Mobile County must also significantly upgrade or replace 450 existing machines.

"We can't do anything right now; we're at a standstill," said Probate Judge Don Davis.

The Electronic Voting Committee reviews machines to make sure they comply with state law. Counties must equipment certified by the panel.

During Thursday's meeting in the Capitol, committee members kept their tones friendly despite the tension. Chairman Bill English and Assistant Attorney General W. Rushing Payne Jr. voted together. English, who is Lee County's probate judge, is a Republican, as is Attorney General Troy King, who sent Payne in his stead.

On the other side were Secretary of State Nancy Worley and state Rep. Priscilla Dunn of Bessemer, both Democrats. The fifth committee member did not attend.

Worley said committee members must determine what standard voting systems must meet before the panel can review machines from different manufacturers.

"Some of the counties are currently using equipment that may have been certified to the 1990 standards," Worley said. "In my opinion, they need to at least be looking at meeting the 2002 standards."

She said her top concern is making sure next year's elections run smoothly without questions about validity.

English, a lawyer, said the core dispute is the committee's role, which he believes is only to review systems that are submitted for certification.

Worley "seems to want to broaden that," he said. Her motion to the 2002 standards included wording that would have applied those guidelines to all previously certified machines, English said.
The Legislature did not authorize the committee to disqualify machines that have been previously OK'd, he said.

After other attempts to bridge the impasse failed, English said Thursday he will try to schedule a meeting before the end of the month at the convenience of the fifth committee member. Worley said she supported that approach.

State Sen. Jeff Enfinger, D-Huntsville, has not attended a meeting since he was appointed to the panel, English and Worley agreed. Enfinger did not return calls Thursday.

Numerous election reforms are under way in Alabama and across the country to comply with the 2002 Help America Vote Act, nicknamed "HAVA." Congress passed the act after voting irregularities in the 2000 presidential election. Alabama voters endured similar uncertainty 2002, when changing Baldwin County vote tallies cast doubt on a tight governor's race.

Every Alabama county has to upgrade voting machines to comply with HAVA.

All voting machines must generate a paper trail that could be used for a recount. Mobile, Montgomery and DeKalb counties must either significantly upgrade voting equipment to meet recount requirements or convert to a new system.

Because every county has to acquire machines for disabled voters, English moved to certify the machines of that type that the committee inspected in June. That measure failed.

The next scheduled statewide elections are June 6, 2006, and Worley said counties would be ready for those party primaries. She said last week she advised probate judges from around the state to talk to vendors and look at what's available now.

Mobile County's top election official said he was worried about delays because manufacturers will experience heavy demand. Davis also said time must be set aside to train hundreds of poll workers and educate thousands of voters.

Davis said officials in Montgomery and DeKalb counties have already decided to go with paper ballots read by optical scanners, the kind of system already used in 64 counties. Some Mobile officials hope the committee will certify an electronic voting machine more like the touch-panel system used in the city for 20 years, Davis said.