Local company is first certified to sell new voting machines

By PAT KINNEY, WCF Courier     14 September 2005 

WATERLOO - When counties around the state their election machines over the coming year, they likely will be buying them from a Waterloo office supply company.

Election machines sold by Matt Parrott & Sons Co. of Waterloo are the first to be certified in Iowa as compliant with provisions of the federal Help America Vote Act, or HAVA bill.

Both optical scan and touch screen voting systems manufactured by Diebold Inc. and sold by Matt Parrott were certified by the State Board of Examiners, with assistance from the Iowa Secretary of State's office.

 Optical scan machines are similar to those already in use in Black Hawk County, in which voters mark their choices on a paper ballot and slide it into an optical scanning machine where it is counted. Updated technology will force the machine to automatically reject a ballot in which a voter mistakenly has "over voted," or voted for too many candidates in a given race. The machine spits the ballot back to the voter, who will be allowed to revote.

The State Board of Examiners also approved an option for a touch screen system which would also prints a voter-verifiable paper trail. Touch screen machines, easier for voters with disabilities, allow voters to cast their ballot on a machine similar to a bank automated teller machine.

Matt Parrott expect to install equipment in more than half of Iowa's 99 counties by the June 6 primary election for the November 2006 general election, company president Dave Buck said.

The HAVA bill, drafted after the confusion in Florida surrounding the 2000 presidential election, requires new rules be effective and equipment installed next year.

The requirements include adding at least one touch-screen-activated voting machine in each precinct to accommodate voters with disabilities. Also the existing voter registration systems would be replaced with a new statewide system being implemented by the Iowa Secretary of State's office.

Black Hawk County will have its new election equipment delivered by late December, county elections manager Kyle Jensson said.

"Our existing (equipment) will look almost identical to the new equipment because the design isn't changing, but the technology inside the machine is what's different," Jensson said, with the ability to distinguish more different kinds of marks. "So, from a voter standpoint, it should be pretty seamless."

"The touch screen will be new, and have provisions for persons specifically with vision and hearing impairments," Jensson said. "That'll also help people with dexterity issues," who may not be able to grasp a marking pen, for example.

Jim Glaza, who worked 28 years as a local counselor with the Iowa Commission of the Blind, and has been a longtime advocate for the disabled, said the machines are a good idea that must be tested in practice.

"Any time you set up an alternative for a person with a disability to function competitively and with reasonable acumen, it's a plus," said Glaza, who is blind. However, he said, theory sometimes ends up different in practical situations. County officials are considering assembling a committee to get feedback on how the new handicap-accessible machines will work.

The improvements are expected to cost about $500,000 in Black Hawk County alone, Jensson said. The HAVA bill provided for federal and state matching money to pick up those costs, which are allocated among counties based on population, number of voting precincts and other factors. It won't be known until later this year if county funds will be required to pick up some of those costs.

That will mean more business for Matt Parrott, and more seasonal job opportunities for individuals, Buck said.

Matt Parrott is a sub-agent for the Henry Atkins Co. of Clarion, Mo. south of Kansas City, which held the right to vend the new Diebold equipment in several upper Midwestern states.

Buck noted some Internet blogs have raised questions about Diebold equipment, which was used in Ohio in the middle of a vote-counting controversy in the 2004 presidential election between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry. Some have even suggested Republican sabotage, claiming Diebold top management are heavy Republican contributors. But Buck noted that the new equipment underwent extensive testing before being certified by the state.

"We sent our equipment and our software to an independent testing lab, and they went through the software line by line," Buck said. Also the National Association of State Election Directors also reviewed the equipment, in addition to the State Board of Examiners," with assistance Secretary of State Chet Culver, a Democrat.

Buck also noted the system is never connected to the Internet, precluding the opportunity to hack into the system