Commissioners vote to go with state's plan for voting machines

Amie Rose DAILY HERALD??? 31 August 2005

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County commissioners took a leap into the voting future Tuesday, deciding to replace the county's fleet of punchcard voting machines with ATM-like electronic ones, maybe forcing a future tax increase in the process.

The federal Help America Vote Act requires counties to have at least one voting machine per polling place that is accessible to people with disabilities.

?The HAVA-compliant machines must be in place by 2006. The state's HAVA plan is to replace all punchcard machines with direct-recording electronic machines, or one optical scan machine per polling place, made by Diebold.

The county put out its own request for proposals for voting equipment after the state made its choice, but only two companies submitted bids. The equipment the two companies submitted for consideration isn't yet federally certified, although both companies told county officials they expect to be certified before the HAVA deadline. Commissioners weren't willing to take the risk of buying equipment that might not be useable, and decided to go with the state's total replacement plan.

"We were not presented with the best option, in my opinion, by the state," said Commissioner Jerry Grover. "I'm not saying we'll raise taxes, but it places that money out of play for other county needs."

Although the state is buying the machines, the county will still have to come up with a significant amount for elections. The total annual cost on election years is projected at $1,051,893, and the annual and one-time costs together are estimated to be $1,163,107.

Under the replacement plan, the state will buy the machines for 125 polling places $3.5 million. But the county will have to cover all other one-time costs an estimated $111,214 and election costs an estimated $705,079. That's in addition to the annual insurance of $2,097 and $344,717 commissioners will have to set aside every year to replace the machines in 10 years.

The county already spends tax dollars on elections, more when it's an election year. This year's elections budget is $192,000, and last year's elections budget was $565,000.

Although commissioners unanimously approved the state's contract, they changed it to say they would only be required to use the equipment through Nov. 14, 2006 after a primary and general election. The state's original contract went through the general election in 2008.

"I want to be able to consider other options," Grover said, about the change to 2006. "That's in the county's best interest, and that's what my job is to negotiate contracts that reflect the county's best interest."

Joe Demma, Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert's spokesman, said the change was a "friendly amendment." There are four counties that still need to approve the contract before the Sept. 9 deadline.

The state will give the county $3.5 million to buy the replacement machines, while it would have only given $1.2 million to buy one optical scan machine per polling place, said Kim Jackson, county clerk-auditor.

"I think one of the reasons to go with the DRE is we're getting much more value from the state," he said.

But Grover disagreed.

"We still have to come up with additional tax money," he said. "It's like when I go to the store and buy a jumbo size, and I only need a small size. I guess I got more value."

Jackson said he preferred the full DRE replacement option because it will make early voting easier if the state Legislature approves it; the disabled community doesn't oppose it; and because of the synergy that will be created by having the same system across the state.

But the money won't cover costs of buying additional machines when the county has to add new precincts. Utah County is growing by 15,000 to 18,000 people per year, and added 25 precincts last year, said Commissioner Steve White.