State extends voting machine deadline
    

By Glenn May    Pittsburgh TRIBUNE-REVIEW    December 6, 2005
Allegheny County has more time to pick a vendor to replace its mechanical voting machines, federal, state and local election officials said Monday.

Previously, the state's 67 counties faced a Dec. 31 deadline to reach an agreement to purchase new voting machines that comply with the federal Help America Vote Act. Now, they are required only to have the machines in operation for the May 16 primary.

"A lot of (counties) feel they are under the crunch. Maybe this will give them a little more wiggle room to come into compliance," said Brian McDonald, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Secretary of State's Office.

At stake is federal money routed through the states to county governments to help pay for new machines.

The Secretary of State's Office previously told Allegheny County it could lose some of the approximately $12.2 million in pledged federal aid if it missed the Dec. 31 deadline.

But new guidelines issued last week require counties only to pass resolutions affirming their intention to comply with the 2002 federal voting act.

"We don't have to pick the firm by the end of the year; we just have to say we're going to do it," said County Chief Executive Dan Onorato.

The federal aid is an important part of the estimated $20 million cost for new machines for the county's 1,300 polling places.

State and local governments risk losing a share of the federal aid only if they don't have new machines in time for the next federal election the May primary said Jeannie Layson, spokeswoman for the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

Allegheny County is negotiating with four suppliers. Tim Johnson, head of the county's administrative services department, said the Dec. 31 deadline would have been hard to meet because only one of the four has received the required state certification.

The extension also helps Washington County, said Larry Spahr, director of elections.

Washington County had planned to comply with the federal act by upgrading existing punch-card systems but recently learned that its supplier could guarantee maintenance for only five years, prompting a decision to buy all new machines, he said.

Getting new machines in time will still be challenging, said Spahr, who wonders whether suppliers will have enough inventory and training staff to meet demand.

Allegheny and Washington counties are among seven or eight in the region considering a combined order with one manufacturer. By ordering together, the counties could get a better price, and voters across much of the region would use the same system, Spahr said.