Lafayette County gets voting machines

By Jermaine Jackson    The Daily Mississippi

August 25, 2005

Lafayette County supervisors have made a decision that affects the way local voters will elect their representation.

The board of supervisors voted last Tuesday to accept the state of Mississippi?s offer to have Diebold election machines placed in voting precincts as part of the state?s attempt to bring voting procedures into compliance with the federal Help America Vote Act.

According to the Secretary of State?s Web page at http://www.sos.state.ms.us/elections/HAVA/HAVA.asp, HAVA, the federal law, requires a ?centralized statewide voter registration system, replacing punch card and lever voting machines, improving voter education and poll worker training, requiring provisional ballots, and mandating that at least one voting machine be available per polling place which is accessible to voters with disabilities.?

Richard Copp, Lafayette County administrator, said the Diebold machines were chosen because of all the research that the state has conducted.

?The state did all of the research and ed the machines, saving us the work of finding a machine that fell within HAVA?s guidelines,? Copp said.

Copp also said the machines that will be used were provided for free.

?The state is providing the county with 64 machines at no cost,? he said. ?We are evaluating to find out if additional machines are necessary.?

The board of supervisors is confident in the decision based on research conducted, according to Copp.

?Research shows the county that although people will have to adjust to the change, people like voting on these machines, so long-time voters will adjust and enjoy voting on these machines,? Copp said.

Fran Leber, president of the League of Women Voters of Mississippi, said the machines are being chosen because of their record for less errors.

?It has been proven that touch machines provide less errors,? Leber said. ?You can also pull up how you voted and if you made a mistake you can go back and change it.?

Leber also said the machines will be good for disabled people who want to vote.

?It is good for disabled people and those who have a hard time reading small print. If a person can?t read at all, there are earphones to instruct you on what you should do,? she said.

The machines will also help election commission officials keep track of voter registration in Mississippi, a critical part of a fair voting system.

?Registered voters in Mississippi will be in a database with the Secretary of State?s office,? Leber said. ?There are people registered in more than one area of the state. There are a few counties in the state that have more registered voters than residents in the county.?

Leber said the machines are being purchased with federal money.

?Federal money was used to buy these machines,? Leber said. ?This is the first time federal money is used in this kind of project.?

Diebold provides election systems statewide for Georgia, Alaska and most of Maryland and Arizona. Mississippi is the most recent state to join the group.

Diebold is also in contract negotiations with Utah to implement a statewide touchscreen voting system and with Alabama to implement a statewide voter registration system.