Sancho, Cobb to meet about HAVA issues
Residents weigh in on special needs
By Jeff Burlew
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

 

Sally Benjamin looks forward to the day she can cast votes at her precinct in private, without anyone's help.

Benjamin, president of the Tallahassee Council of the Blind, is visually impaired. Since 2002 she has been voting through the mail, marking her ballot at home with the help of a closed-circuit television enlarger. In years past, she voted at her precinct with a family member's assistance.

"I don't like having to go and have somebody read (the ballot) to me and mark it for me," said Benjamin, 53. "All we want is to be able to vote like everybody else."

That's the reason Congress in 2002 passed the federal Help America Vote Act. It requires voting systems to be accessible to people with disabilities, including the blind and visually impaired.

It sounds straightforward enough. Carrying out that law, though, has been a challenge in various states - and certainly in Leon County, where a missed deadline has made the issue the No. 1 topic of conversation.

Here at the end of another week of election debate, people are alternately praising and scolding Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho amid accusations of partisan politics. Meanwhile, as Sancho prepares for a meeting with state officials Monday and a county workshop Tuesday, more attention is being focused on a proposed 11th-hour solution and people like Benjamin are hanging on every word.
What the law says

The law states that the equipment must provide "the same opportunity for access and participation (including privacy and independence) as for other voters."

States across the country are struggling to comply. Among them are Colorado, Georgia, Maryland and New York - which is being sued by the U.S. Department of Justice for failing to comply. Some jurisdictions bought new equipment without security features later demanded by state legislators. Others have asked for waivers until after fall elections.

"It's a massive problem," said Bev Harris, director and founder of the nonprofit elections group Black Box Voting Inc. "Election officials ... feel like they're between a rock and a hard place."

In Florida, Leon County is the only county that missed the Jan. 1 deadline to comply with HAVA. Secretary of State Sue Cobb has threatened legal action if Sancho doesn't get voting equipment for the disabled by May 1. Sancho and county officials are set to meet Monday with Cobb and discuss the issue again in a Tuesday workshop.

Sancho hasn't been able to get the equipment because none of the three companies certified in Florida will sell it to him. One of them, Diebold Election Systems, is upset because last year Sancho conducted tests (company officials call them demonstrations) of the county's Diebold optical-scan system. He and other experts say they think the tests, underwritten by Black Box Voting, showed that Diebold memory cards could be manipulated to change election results. Diebold stands by its equipment.

The two other companies, Election Systems and Software and Sequoia Voting Systems, say they have all the business they can handle.
Hero or villain?

Sancho's supporters call him a hero for standing up to the companies and demanding that voting systems have paper trails to ensure accurate election results. They say the issue is especially important after the botched 2000 presidential election.

Others, however, are upset that Sancho's tests touched off a chain of events that led to the missed deadline and cost the county more than a half-million dollars in grant money for the equipment. They say he put his personal beliefs about voting equipment above the federal law.

Benjamin, of the Council of the Blind, is among those frustrated with Sancho, though she said she doesn't want to see him get into trouble.

"He is not within the law, to be honest with you," she said. "He should have had it done by January 2006, and it's not in place."

Ken Weaver, a Tallahassee caterer who's been following the issue, said he thinks the Republican Party is trying to get rid of Sancho, a former Democrat now unaffiliated with any party. Cobb was appointed by Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, and the county commissioners most outspoken in their criticism of Sancho - Ed DePuy and Tony Grippa - are Republicans.

"The obvious solution, if everybody was not playing partisan politics," Weaver said, "would be to put pressure on the three vendors, telling them, 'If you don't sell to Leon County, take your toys and get out of the state of Florida. And we'll sell to new vendors who aren't afraid to have their equipment independently tested.' "

DePuy, during a commission meeting last month, denied that partisan politics had anything to do with his questioning of Sancho. Grippa, who has contributed to Sancho's re-election in the past, says his beef isn't personal or political. But he said Sancho was responsible for making sure the county complied with HAVA.

"Not even Ion Sancho is above the law," he said.

Commissioner Bob Rackleff, a Democrat, calls Sancho one of the nation's best election supervisors.

"I think we just need to step aside and let him do his job, stop second-guessing him and attacking him," Rackleff said. "He doesn't need any interference from amateurs, including me."

Sancho wants to buy equipment from a Louisville, Ky., company called IVS. Its Vote-by-Phone system would cost less than $600,000 - which is cheaper than any alternative so far discussed. But it isn't certified by the state.

Sancho and Rackleff want the state to expedite its certification of the devices, which are headphones that can be used by the blind.

Next week, the election drama continues.