Bucks braces for voting changes
By: CHRISTOPHER T. EDWARDS    Advance of Bucks County 10/05/2005
 

Perhaps not wanting to be omitted from the recent rash of government officials blasting their colleagues, Bucks County Commissioners Board Chairman Charles H. Martin took a heavy swipe at the U.S. Congress last Thursday morning, September 29.
During a state of the county meeting of the Central Bucks Chamber of Commerce, Martin estimated the Helping Americans Vote Act of 2002 (or HAVA) will wind up costing his county constituents between $4 million to $5 million to replace existing lever voting machines.
Martin, who feels the approximately 800 current machines have served the county flawlessly since the 1950's, told breakfast attendees at The Waterwheel Restaurant and Country Inn that HAVA was a "gross overreaction" to the 2000 Presidential election ballot-counting snafu.
"This is going to be a major expenditure of your tax dollars," Martin predicted. "By going to electronic voting machines, it's going to cost us $9-10 million. It's the kind of thing we got stuck with, and it's bipartisan."
HAVA mandates that all 67 Pennsylvania counties must purchase electronic voting equipment by Jan. 1, 2006. In order to be eligible for federal aid in buying the new machines, county officials must comply.
According to Martin, Bucks County figures to receive $3-4 million of funding to put toward the overall expense.
To date, however, the State of Pennsylvania has approved only one brand of machine. State officials are in the process of certifying vendors offering features such as optical scanners for voter identification.
As Martin correctly indicated, time is running short to implement HAVA's changes. He doesn't want to be forced to purchase the cheapest available machine just to promote fiscal sanity.
"I don't know what we're going to be doing on New Year's Eve," he said, sarcastically referring to the federal deadline. "This is not well thought out legislation."
On September 21, Bucks County Chief Operating Officer David Sanko attended a Harrisburg state hearing about the matter. During that session, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Pedro Cortes clarified several matters regarding HAVA.
"We learned, conclusively, that lever machines are not permissible," Sanko told ING Newspapers. "The state is moving forward toward certification. They are looking for user friendliness, but they are not willing to sacrifice the accuracy of the count."
Added Martin, "We got some answers (at the hearing) we didn't particularly like."
The CBCC's annual event included remarks from Martin and fellow commissioners James F. Cawley, Esq. and Sandra A. Miller.
Cawley, who was appointed to the commissioners' board on January 5 and sworn in on January 18, focused his address on economic development and emergency services.
"Economic development is a passion of mine," he said, certainly mindful that the CBCC membership includes over 2,600 businesses. "Five years ago, the commissioners created an economic development department. The average small businessman can get quite confused by what I like to call alphabet soup (of government agencies)."
Focusing on six communities that make up the Delaware River waterfront from Morrisville to the Philadelphia County line - including Falls Township, Tullytown Borough, Bristol Township, Bristol Borough and Bensalem - Cawley said he is particularly interested in helping to bring new vitality to that area and its surrounding industrial complexes.
"We want to keep businesses from developing pristine farmlands and forests," he added. "It dovetails (into the county's open-space conservation efforts)."
Both Cawley and Miller foresee "wonderful results" for the U.S. Steel facility in Fairless Hills. The county is aggressively courting an "international presence" in that complex.
Following Cawley and Martin to the podium because the commissioners' speeches were given in alphabetical order, Miller addressed property tax, open space and senior citizen efforts.
"The county government should be given options," Miller insisted. "The idea of funding government based on real estate values is not equitable. We want to look into earned income and sales taxes. We want to make funding the county government fairer than it presently is."
She also discussed the county's Task Force on Aging, which will be aided by the creation of a national 211 network. By dialing 211 - much like the existing 911 emergency system - callers will be able to access a plethora of senior-related information.
The meeting's question and answer session included concerns about the county's terrorism/emergency alert system, which has benefited greatly from Sanko's background as an emergency director at the state level.
"The watchword in Bucks County is preparedness," said Cawley. "When we had (Delaware River) flooding in April, there was no death and no serious injury. That didn't get as much coverage as it should have.
"I can't stand here and tell you we're ready for every possible contingency. But we have an action plan for every emergency we see."
Recent county efforts to save money have included a bond refinancing issue in conjunction with Wachovia Bank (trimming more than $2 million of debt service), a $1 million health care insurance restructuring with Blue Cross, and the possibility of moving 200 inmates at the county corrections facility to a state facility.
Each inmate costs taxpayers approximately $80 a day, meaning a year of incarceration for 200 prisoners totals $5.84 million.
County officials also have been told they need two new district courts, one in Bensalem and one in Warwick Township.