Voting Machines - Field narrows to four
J.D. Prose, Beaver County Times Staff
08/25/2005
 BEAVER - Beaver County officials have asked four companies to bring their electronic voting systems here for public evaluations, including the maker of the county's former system that was banned by the state this year.

Just back from a state elections directors conference in Philadelphia, Commissioners Chairman Dan Donatella said on Wednesday that commissioners and elections director Dorene Mandity inspected several systems, but decided the chosen four were "the most interesting ones."

All the companies invited to the county offer color, electronic touch-screen systems that have the capability to produce a paper voting trail, Donatella said.

The ed companies, Donatella said, are Sequoia, AccuPoll, Advanced Voting Solutions and UniLect Corp., which makes the Patriot, the county's former voting system that was deemed unreliable and decertified by the state in April.

So far, however, only AccuPoll has been approved by the state and federal governments as meeting requirements for accuracy and handicapped accessibility under the federal Help America Vote Act.

Under HAVA, every county in the country must have an approved system ordered by Jan. 1.

The Pennsylvania Department of State has yet to decide on certifications for the Patriot system and Sequoia's Edge system.

Advanced is scheduled to have its WinVote system tested on Sept. 19.

Jack Gerbel, UniLect's president, said last week that a revamped Patriot system, featuring d software and color screens, was tested by the state on Aug. 15.

The older version of the Patriot, which had black-and-white screens, failed two exams conducted by the Pennsylvania Department of State.

Donatella said the systems offer similar features, so commissioners will pay close attention to each company's cost, support system, software and level of training.

The county should receive $8,000 per precinct, or about $1 million, under HAVA to purchase a new system. Officials, recalling that the county spent $1.2 million for the Patriot system in 1997, have said the HAVA funds won't come close to paying for machines.

If the county chose the new Patriot system, though, it could receive $4,000 per precinct, or $516,000, to its existing equipment.