Election board OKs ethics code
$70 million set aside for new voting machines prompted rules change

By David Ingram   Winston-Salem JOURNAL    22 October 2005

The State Board of Elections approved a new ethics code yesterday, in an attempt to head off possible ethical concerns as it prepares to order at least $70 million worth of new voting machines.

"We're going to be dealing with a lot of money," said Gary Bartlett, the executive director of the State Board of Elections. "The most important thing is to have a clear understanding from election officials and vendors about what is appropriate behavior and what is not."

The code covers employees of the state elections office and of county and city elections offices. It limits when they can speak with companies that sell election equipment, and it limits when they can attend events sponsored by those companies. It also makes clear that employees cannot profit from their positions by, for example, accepting gifts from companies. Most such activities are already regulated by law.

State and local elections officials are getting ready to spend between $70 million and $90 million to replace old voting machines. Some, such as punch-card machines used in Forsyth County, are considered obsolete. Others, such as touch-screen machines used in Burke County, don't produce a paper record.

Dysfunctional machines without a paper record contributed to the loss of 4,438 votes last year in Carteret County - one of the worst election errors in the country. A new state law requires all voting machines to produce a paper record, which will be the official ballot for any recounts. The law also required the new ethics code for election officials.

"At any time, government officials have to be prepared for close scrutiny," said state Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, D-Orange, an author of the new law. Kinnaird pointed to the intermingled relationships among state officials and Scientific Games Corp., a major lottery vendor, as an example of what election officials should avoid. "We want people to feel that the most important democratic act that they do is counted accurately and accounted for by what we consider responsible public officials."

Ethical inquiries into elections officials have been rare, but they have happened. Bill Culp, who served as elections director in Mecklenburg County for 28 years, was sentenced to 21/2 years in prison in 1999 for accepting at least $134,000 in bribes and kickbacks from a voting-machine vendor.

The State Board of Elections has been criticized for its members' involvement in the Election Center, a professional group for election officials.

The center takes money from voting-equipment companies such as Diebold Inc.

"We don't want our election officials influenced by someone who's influenced by voting-machine companies," said Joyce McCloy, a voting activist in Winston-Salem.

Bartlett said that about 10 percent of the Election Center's budget comes from the voting-equipment industry.

He said, though, that the companies do not have significant influence over the center. Companies have until Nov. 4 to submit their proposals for new machines.