State hurries to meet federal voting machine requirements
  By Tobin A. Coleman    The Stamford Advocate

Published September 23 2005

Connecticut is waiting to hear whether its lever-operated voting machines will be illegal in the 2006 elections.

Local and state officials met Wednesday with Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz for the first time since a ruling that mechanical machines cannot be used in next year's federal elections.

Representatives from the state attorney general's office, legislative leaders who oversee election laws and local officials discussed how much money and effort will be needed to comply with the 2002 Help America Vote Act.

Congress passed the act after the difficulties encountered in the 2000 presidential election.

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal yesterday said his office is contacting the federal Justice Department to clarify the ruling released this month by the Election Assistance Commission.

In response to an inquiry from Pennsylvania officials, the Election Assistance Commission determined that voting machines must be handicapped accessible, have a paper backup of voter tallies and have multilanguage capabilities by Jan. 1. Lever machines do not fit the bill, the commission ruled.

Blumenthal said his office is seeking a decision from the Justice Department allowing Connecticut enough time to install electronic voting machines.

"That may be an extension beyond the 2006 election," Blumenthal said.

Richard Abbate, president of the Registrars of Voters Association of Connecticut, said registrars in the state's 169 municipalities are worried that the election could be chaotic if the ruling is upheld.

It would be daunting to replace the state's 3,308 voting machines, deliver them to each town, and train registrars, city and town clerks, poll workers, election monitors and voters if it has to be done by August, when the state could be holding primaries for congressional races.

The Election Assistance Commission took three years to get organized and met for the first time early this year, Abbate said.

"Their own inability to get themselves organized has now led to them making rulings that are binding within a period of time that is really impractical, given the national scope of what we're doing here," he said.

The registrar's group has signed a letter asking Congress to extend the deadlines but Abbate said he has little hope.

Abbate said Bysiewicz's plan for choosing new machines, starting with public demonstrations from vendors the week of Nov. 14, might not be soon enough.

"So we're very concerned that these issues get resolved and get resolved expeditiously, because if we choose a machine and find out later that it doesn't comply, it's the registrars' necks that are going to be in the noose," he said.

Bysiewicz said she plans to go ahead with the demonstrations and get results from a University of Connecticut poll to determine which machine people like most.

"We really have to be ready to act quickly if we do not get a waiver," she said. "As long as the technology is in polling stations in August, we're good."

But municipalities are concerned with the costs. Their budgets are in place through June 30. Even if the $33 million the state has received from the federal government covers the cost of machines something not guaranteed there are other costs, including training, said Kachina Walsh-Weaver, legislative associate with the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities.

There is trepidation about moving to a new technology, she said.

"Some of our towns have expressed that they trust the lever machines," Walsh-Weaver said. "The public trusts the machines. There is a lot of skepticism by the public about whether these electronic machines could be tampered with."

State Rep. Livvy Floren, R-Greenwich, who attended the meeting with Bysiewicz as the ranking Republican member of the Legislature's Government Administration and Elections Committee, said she doesn't want the state to rush to approve a new voting machine to meet a deadline, then find out later it is not fit for all circumstances.

"If we have to go to touch screens, then let's wait and do it once," said Floren, who also represents part of Stamford. "I think Connecticut is ahead of the curve on this and I think we should be commended, not penalized."