Fed money at stake as voting machine resolution looms

By JAMES MILLER    Daytona Beach News-Journal   October 22, 2005

 

The clock is ticking should Volusia County officials want to replace the county's voting system without losing federal grant money intended to make voting more accessible to people with disabilities.

"We're starting to get under the gun again," County Councilman Dwight Lewis said Friday.

In order to keep almost $700,000 of federal grant money, the county must contract to buy disabled-accessible voting equipment by Dec. 31, said Supervisor of Elections Ann McFall.

This summer, Lewis and three other council members vetoed McFall's request to buy touch-screen voting machines to meet a state mandate for disabled-accessible equipment because the machines do not use paper ballots like the county's current system. McFall said the touch-screens would only augment the existing system.

The National Federation of the Blind sued. An appeal to a ruling that went against the federation is set for a hearing before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Judicial Circuit in Atlanta during the week of Jan. 9.

In the meantime, council members may face a decision about whether to forsake more than half a million dollars in federal money intended to help them make the upgrade.

Paper-ballot advocates have held out hope the state would approve a ballot-marking system known as the AutoMark as an alternative to the touch-screens, but so far that hasn't happened. The current county system's manufacturer, Diebold Election Systems, has said the alternate system could not be used with its machines anyway.

"It's either buying the touch-screens or replacing the whole system," McFall said, referring to discussions about going with an optical-scan system like the current system but made by a different manufacturer, Election Systems & Software. The AutoMark ballot-marking device is intended to be compatible with that system.

County Chairman Frank Bruno, who opposed the touch-screens, said Friday he wants to work out a deal with the company so that if the AutoMark isn't approved by the end of the year, the county could purchase a new system with disabled-accessible touch-screens, then trade in the touch-screens "dollar-for-dollar" once the AutoMark gets approval.

"What I want to try to do is have a backup so I don't lose the money," he said.

But McFall said the chances of replacing the entire system by the end of the year are slim because the county would have to entertain bids a roughly 90-day process start-to-finish.

Bruno said he doesn't think the county would have to go through a bidding process, setting up a disagreement that would have to be resolved by county legal staff.