County supervisors to consider purchase of new voting system
By BRIAN SEALS  Santa Cruz SENTINEL    18 October 2005

Purchase of a new voting system to help the county meet federal mandates regarding disabled voters is on the agenda today before the Board of Supervisors.

County Clerk Gail Pellerin is recommending the county negotiate to buy a system from Sequoia Voting Systems at a price not to exceed $2.3 million.

The plan is to place one-touch screen machines that accommodate voters with disabilities ? by using audio for the blind or a sip-and-puff tool that enables quadriplegics to cast a ballot, for example ? in each precinct while also using a new paper ballot for other voters.

While the county mulls new machines to accommodate the disabled, it faces a lawsuit regarding the accessibility to the buildings where those machines will be used.

Attorney General Bill Lockyer sued the county Monday seeking a court order to force the county to make sure buildings that serve as polling places meet state and federal disabled access requirements.

The money for the new system would come from federal and state funds under Proposition 41, passed by California voters in March 2002, and from the federal Help America Vote Act.

The difference between the paper ballots and the mark-a-ballot method the county currently uses is the new paper ballot approach means ballots are scanned before a voter leaves a polling station. That ensures no races are voted twice or omitted.

 
"It would spit a ballot vote and say ?correct your vote,?" Pellerin said of when a voting error occurred.

Providing a second chance for voters along with giving disabled voters the opportunity to vote independently and with anonymity is a requirement of the federal law the county is trying to meet by the first of the year.

Pellerin?s recommendation comes after a plethora of public input. A Voting Systems Task Force was created to evaluate proposals from companies that manufacture voting machines.