Board to upgrade voting machines

Recounts for three races will be done next week.

By DAVID SKOLNICK     Youngstown VINDICATOR    02 December 2005

YOUNGSTOWN ? The Mahoning County Board of Elections approved spending $864,063 to upgrade its electronic voting machines, primarily to add a paper trail that board members don't believe is necessary.

Board Vice Chairman Mark Munroe said the county is being forced by state law, passed last year, to add a paper trail.

"I continue to be skeptical of this requirement," he said. "I'm concerned there is more of an opportunity for error and delay."

Also, the retrofitted electronic voting machines are larger and less sturdy than what the county has used since 2002, elections board employees said. Because of that, curb-side voting for those with disabilities will be discontinued beginning with the May 2006 election, Munroe said.

The board approved the $864,063 expense at its Thursday meeting.

Deal struck

The county struck a deal for the state-required improvements with Election System & Software, the Omaha, Neb., company that sold the electronic voting machines to the county in 2001 for $2.95 million.

ES&S is selling 142 machines, one for every voting location in the county, to the election board. Those machines comply with provisions in the Americans with Disabilities Act, said Thomas McCabe, election board director.

The 142 ADA machines cost $377,720. With those, the county will have 1,001 electronic voting machines for the May 2006 election. Each of them needs a paper trail add-on. That add-on costs $640,640, or $640 a machine. The county used ES&S paper ballots for 18 years before going electronic.

Federal help

As part of the federal Help America Vote Act, Mahoning County will receive $2.8 million in federal funds Jan. 9, McCabe said.

Most counties had nearly all of the cost of purchasing new voting machines covered under HAVA, McCabe said. With the additions and upgrades, Mahoning's system will cost $3.81 million. HAVA funds will pay for about two-thirds of Mahoning's system expenses.

"We're getting less because we were first" in the state to have an all-electronic voting system, McCabe said. The elections board had the choice in 2001 ? a few months before HAVA was signed in to federal law ? to spend money on a new paper ballot system or an electronic system that is more reliable, he said.

Also Thursday, the board certified the results of the Nov. 8 election, and scheduled three automatic recounts for 4 p.m. next Thursday. The recounts are for Austintown Township trustee, and seats on the Springfield and Western Reserve school boards. Recounts are automatic if the margin of victory is 0.5 of 1 percent or less after election results are certified.