Mobile County could see new vote machines
Cost a consideration in possible switch to optical scanners
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
By SALLIE OWEN    Mobile Register

MONTGOMERY Some Mobile County leaders had hoped to avoid reverting to paper ballots when the county upgrades its voting machines for next year's elections, but a recent decision by a statewide committee may make that impossible.

Most counties in Alabama already use paper ballots read by optical scanners.

"We're going to have to go with, obviously, the optical (scanners) because of the funding source," Mobile County Commissioner Stephen Nodine said Tuesday.  

The committee decided what purchases will qualify for reimbursement from the $23 million set aside for voting machines. Congress allotted the state more than $40 million for required election reforms.

For Mobile County, the kicker is how many machines the federal money will buy.

The county cannot use federal funds and local dollars, too, according to commission President Mike Dean. "We have absolutely no funding available for machines," he said.

Right now, Mobile uses touch screen voting machines but they do not generate a paper trail that meets new federal standards.

The committee decided federal money will pay for one machine for every 2,400 voters or one per polling place at smaller precincts. That works out to more than three voters per minute if every registered voter turns out during the 12 hours a polling place is open.

House Majority Leader Ken Guin, D-Carbon Hill, pushed for that formula, which he said helps ensure that there will be enough money to go around to all of the state's 67 counties.

One machine for disabled voters must be added to every polling place in the state under the federal requirements. Montgomery and DeKalb counties must also convert to new voting systems, and many others must upgrade existing equipment.

"There was a general overall concern that we could run out of money," Guin said.

At present, Mobile works with a ratio of one machine for every 600 voters, said Probate Judge Don Davis.

With Mobile's existing machines, only one person can vote at a machine at a time. Optical scanners allow many people to mark their ballots simultaneously, and a voter may only need a few seconds to feed a ballot into the scanner.

The County Commission funds the probate court, which runs elections.

Davis, a member of the statewide committee that set the reimbursement guidelines, was hesitant to say if the guidelines will limit the county's options.

"I don't think it has a material impact on Mobile," he said Tuesday.