Specifications for electronic voting machines are posted
October 13,2005
BY Sue Book
New Bern Sun Journal 

The first fall 2005 Election Day brought with it the first dose of what state lawmakers hope is strong medicine for restoring voter confidence in elections.

The specifications and request for proposals for new voting machines with a paper trail back-up were posted Tuesday.

Craven County Board of Elections will be among the lookers.

The requirement that voter machines "must generate a paper record of each individual vote cast" that can be viewed by the voter before the vote is cast electronically and be held as a backup record means new voting equipment will be required here.

"That specification right there throws our machines out," Tiffiney Miller, Craven County Board of Elections director, said of the county's more than 200 Electronic Systems and Software machines.

A state law passed Aug. 26 required the changes to make voting equipment in the state more accurate, secure and uniform. It came after a 2004 election in which 4,438 votes were lost in an electronic voting machine in Carteret County and other glitches that left the outcomes of state and local races in doubt long after Election Day.

Legislators, election officials and activists met more than 25 times to hash out the new requirements for the machines.

"An effort was made by the state to let everyone say what was really needed. A lot of groundwork was done," said Miller, who has participated in focus group meetings as an officer in the state elections directors' association.

Standardizing the specs and bidding the contract through the state "is helping a lot of smaller counties out on this," she said, because they often neither have the time or expertise to necessarily make a good choice.

A state contract, to be awarded for a year and renewable for one year at a time two consecutive years, is also expected to save them money, said Ed Daughtry, of the state's information technology procurement division.

Companies have until Nov. 4 to bid on the project with a decision expected in December. County officials will then have a chance to look at the options and order so that the new machines can be ready for primary elections in May.

"It looks like we will have to be using them by next year," said Miller. "We're still doing the hurry up and wait.

"I don't think it means you've got to rush out and buy some, but most of the footwork and bargaining will be done already. We are a little closer than we were, but we're not going to do anything until everything is clear about exactly what we're supposed to do and what funding we are going to receive."

The 40 municipal elections held in North Carolina Tuesday, including New Bern, came off without a hitch, the State Board of Elections reported.