Supervisors say no to secretary of state's plan

8/19/2005 BY LEESHA FAULKNER    Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal

TUPELO - Lee County supervisors took less than 20 minutes Friday to vote 4-1 against Secretary of State Eric Clark's plan for touch-screen voting machines.

The vote means the county will have to buy the machines from another vendor

Lee County was one of six that voted against the plan. Seventy-six of Mississippi's 82 counties decided to participate, 72 by saying yes and fourby taking no action, which effectively meant they opted in. The deadline to decide wasl 5 p.m. Friday.

All counties are required to have federally approved voting systems by 2006.

Supervisors Tommie Lee Ivy, Glen Weeks, Bobby Smith and Phil Morgan voted to opt out of the project. Supervisor president Charles Duke cast the lone opposition vote.

Before he voted, Ivy said several people had told him they couldn't use the touch screen. "I think we ought to have freedom of choice," he said, "especially in this time frame. We haven't had enough time."

In June the state contracted with Diebold Election Systems to purchase up to 5,164 voting machines using $15 million in federal and state funds provided under the federal Help America Vote Act.

Clark offered the machines to all 82 counties, based on a complicated formula that used voter turnout in the last elections. The machines, he said, would be free.

Under that plan, Lee County would have received 126 machines, but it would have had to buy 20-40 more to meet voter demand.

Complaints

In recent weeks, several Lee supervisors had complained that they didn't have enough time to study the issues and consider alternatives. Duke had asked Clark to extend the deadline until October, but the secretary of state declined.

On Friday, Duke stood with Clark, saying that during the past 17 1/2 years of his tenure he hadn't opposed the secretary of state, circuit clerk and election commissioners on issues of voting machines.

"If we are going to replace our 12-year-old voting machines," Duke said in a letter to supervisors, "how can we justify turning down the offer of 126 machines at no cost to Lee County."

Duke predicted that buying other machines will cause the county to raise taxes. After the meeting, supervisor Phil Morgan said he didn't think taxes would go up.

Now, the county must go through the bid process to get new voting machines, said county administrator Ronnie Bell. Supervisors meet again at 10 a.m. Monday. Bell said he will begin writing specifications for the bids soon.