Limos vs. voting machines
Chauffeuring handicapped less costly than mandated poll changes, Day says

By Chris Paschenko
The Decatur DAILY      27 September 2005

Perplexed by a federal election mandate, Morgan County Probate Judge Bobby Day said Monday the county could save $250,000 or more by chauffeuring voters to polling places in limousines.

Hanging chads and the 2000 presidential voting fiasco led Congress to implement changes at polling places, Day told the County Commission.

In an unfunded mandate, the Help America Vote Act of 2002 requires states to provide specialized handicapped voting machines, costing as much as $5,000 each, at every polling site, Day said.

"In my opinion, it would be less expensive to put the machines in polling sites at Decatur, Hartselle, Somerville and Lacey's Spring and haul the handicapped voters by stretch limousines" rather than placing a machine at each precinct, Day said.

After viewing the specialized machines in Selma on Saturday, Day said, the machines couldn't assist the blind and deaf voters would have no privacy when voting.

The machines would meet the needs of only the majority of the voting handicapped, Day said. Those paralyzed from the neck down could use a mouth tip to register their votes without assistance, he said.

State election representatives were unaware how many voters would benefit from the machines, Day said.

At their next meeting commissioners plan to adopt a resolution supporting a bill that delays by 48 months the 2006 deadline for the state to comply with the voting requirements.

County officials would have to decide how they would chauffeur voters, whether by limousines, county transit vans or by other means.