Kiffmeyer, counties at odds over voting equipment

Machines for disabled may be costly

BY BILL SALISBURY    Twin Cities Pioneer Press    30 November 2005

A spat between Minnesota Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer and election officials in four east-metro counties erupted again Tuesday when Kiffmeyer rejected the kind of ballot-marking machines the county officials wanted to use to help blind or physically disabled people vote.

Kiffmeyer notified voting administrators in Anoka, Dakota, Ramsey and Washington counties that the machines they prefer do not meet state or federal election standards. She said she would not certify those machines for use in the 2006 elections, when the Help America Vote Act requires equipment that increases privacy and independence for disabled voters.

Election officials in the four counties disputed her ruling, asserting it would increase their election costs. They said they might appeal to an administrative law judge or the 2006 Legislature for relief.

Last year, election administrators from the same counties, plus a few others, complained that Kiffmeyer was trying to impose a new computerized voter registration system on them before it was adequately tested. The latest dispute indicates she's still unwilling to work with local officials to resolve differences, said Steve Novak, Anoka County's government services manager.

Kiffmeyer said the problem is obstinate officials in the four counties. Their counterparts in Minnesota's other 83 counties have agreed to use voting equipment certified by the state and federal governments. Election Systems and Software manufactures those machines.

Anoka, Dakota, Ramsey and Washington counties, which make up one-fourth of Minnesota's population, use Diebold voting systems and want to add that company's machinery for disabled voters casting ballots. Kiffmeyer said Diebold failed to deliver a system that meets state and federal standards. She urged the four counties to use the ES&S equipment for disabled voters.

"We have invested a lot of time and money and are satisfied with the equipment we currently have," said Dakota County Treasurer-Auditor Carol Leonard. She and other county officials said the equipment Kiffmeyer favors would significantly increase their costs.

That's true, Kiffmeyer said, "but in Minnesota, we're about doing the best elections, not the cheapest." Moreover, she said, federal grants would cover the four counties' costs for purchasing the certified equipment.

Although those grants would cover the initial purchase prices for the equipment, they wouldn't cover the additional long-term costs for maintenance and software, said Anoka County Elections Supervisor Rachel Smith.

If the counties bought ES&S equipment for disabled voters and used their current Diebold machines for other people, "we'd have double the maintenance and operation costs," said Kevin Corbid, Washington County's elections director.

If Ramsey County did that, election officials would have to program, test and transport two different voting systems to 104 polling places and train 1,300 election judges on how to use both of them, said Joe Mansky, the county's elections manager.

Corbid said the counties want vendors to compete for their election equipment business. Kiffmeyer is pushing them to use one vendor, Mansky said, "and the worst of all worlds is an unregulated monopoly."