Itawamba county opts in on state voting machine

8/16/2005 3:58:38 PM
Itawamba County Times

By ALISHA H. WILSON
Managing Editor

Itawamba County Board of Supervisors have decided to "opt in" and operate under the state's recommendation for new voting machines.

Counties have until this Friday to make their decision as to whether or not they would go with the Diebold touch-screen system. Staying with the state's recommended machine ensures the county a five-year maintenance agreement, upgrades, installation and training.

Secretary of State Eric Clark said he is confident the Diebold touch-screen system ed by his office will be the most efficient and most accurate. Plus, because there would be a statewide system, election results will be more timely, and people moving from county to county will not have to learn how to use new voting systems.

The Diebold system, Clark said, "is the best, it is the cheapest" and "extremely user friendly for the disabled."

"We'll have something to back us up if anything goes wrong since we're sticking with the state's recommendation," said board member Pug Wilemon.

There has been opposition to the machines on a number of fronts ? primarily from those who say the computerized system does not provide a paper ballot trail. Clark said a paper ballot can be printed of each recorded vote made on the machine.

A "voter-verified paper audit trail" allows a voter to see his or her vote as it is being cast. The paper ballot is displayed beneath a clear plastic window with the voter's choices printed on it. After a vote is cast, the printed ballot scrolls into a secure, locked canister kept inside the machine. In addition, the machine stores a photographic image of every ballot cast that can be printed. The paper ballots may be used in the event of a recount, or to assure any citizen that all votes were accurately counted.

According to county administrator Gary Franks, it would cost the county an additional one-and-a-half mills of tax if Itawamba decided not to go with the state.

"I don't see any reason to look at anything else," Wilemon said.

As of last Friday, 44 out of 75 counties involved had decided to accept the Diebold voting machines.

Itawamba is scheduled to receive 42 machines from the state with the cost of additional machines being anywhere from $2,700 to $3,200.

The machines provided by the state will be paid for primarily through funds from the federal Help America Vote Act, which was passed in 2002 in response to the chaos that resulted from the 2000 presidential vote in Florida.

Approximately $60,000 is being budgeted for fiscal year 2005-2006 to cover the cost of any additional machines and to upgrade the polling places, Franks reported to the board Monday.

Under federal law, all central scanner machines, lever machines, and punch-card machines must be replaced by 2006. More than 75 counties will be required by federal law to change to new, more accurate machines by January 1, 2006. In addition, at least one device that is fully accessible to the disabled must be in every polling place.

The final year of federal funding for the "Help America Vote Act" - expected to be $6 million for Mississippi - is pending in Congress. Clark emphasized the need for Congress to fully fund election reform so that voters will have every opportunity to become familiar with the new machines before the 2006 congressional elections.

"If our elections are to run smoothly, it will take more than just replacing old, inaccurate machines. We must carry out extensive voter education for election officials and ordinary Mississippians."

According to Circuit Clerk Carol Gates, a significant amount of additional training will be required with the poll workers other than the one-time training Diebold has agreed to do.

The next scheduled election will be the congressional election in June 2006.