Voting machine deadline looms
St. Joseph County considering defiance.

By JAMES WENSITS   South Bend Tribune   25 August 2005

SOUTH BEND As the deadline for meeting a federal requirement to provide handicapped-friendly voting machines looms near, some county officials are talking mutiny.

Suggestions which included ignoring the federal laws until requirements are more clearly in focus, possibly risking a lawsuit, were made at a Wednesday meeting that brought together county commissioners, election board members and voter registration representatives.

Under terms of the Help America Vote Act legislation, the county is required to have new, touch-screen voting machines in place by Jan. 1.

The chances of meeting that deadline appear dim for a variety of reasons, chief among them being that the state has not announced which type or types of machines it will certify as being acceptable. That announcement isn't expected before Oct. 1, according to James Korpal, Democrat member of the county election board.

Then there is the cost of the machines, which could run anywhere from $4,000 to $7,000 each, according to estimates by County Clerk Rita Glenn.

On top of all that, county officials haven't begun interviewing potential vendors, although Glenn said Wednesday that she will start the process of scheduling those meetings.

"What happens if we don't comply?" asked County Commissioner Steve Ross.

His question wasn't entirely rhetorical.

Glenn, who has expressed concerns about the possibility of buying machines that may not meet long-term requirements, told the assemblage that she is "almost willing to risk a lawsuit" to avoid such an occurrence.

In addition to being accessible by those who are blind, deaf or have other disabilities, the new machines must be multilingual and meet state requirements for all types of voting machines.

Those include providing secrecy for voters and making certain that no fraudulent votes can be cast.

County officials said Wednesday they would like some assurance that the new machines are electronically compatible with the optical scan machines the county purchased in 2002 at a cost of over $1.2 million.

Without such compatibility, election officials could be faced with manually tallying results from the two systems on election night, according to Thomas Botkin, the Republican member of the county election board.

The new voting machines have operated well since being introduced during the 2003 municipal elections. They were purchased from Election Systems & Software, of Omaha, Neb., which may or may not be the successful bidder on the next round of machines.

Because different companies use different proprietary software to operate their systems, there is a distinct possibility that machines bought from a company other than ES&S would not be compatible with the existing machines.

Election Board adviser Rick Hunt is working on a plan to the number of polling places from 218 to 175 or fewer. That would put the cost of buying a new touch-screen machine for each polling place at somewhere between $700,000 and $1.2 million if Glenn's estimates are accurate.