Voting system still has flaws
Memory cards' failure rate falls to 4%; absentee ballots yet to arrive
Beacon Journal. Apr. 08, 2006. By Lisa A. Abraham, staff writer

Despite promises by an Election Systems & Software official earlier this week that all new computer memory cards for voting machines at the Summit County Board of Elections had been tested twice and would work, 4 percent have failed.

The number of cards that failed 14 of 349 is small compared with that in earlier testing, when hundreds failed. But any failures are frustrating to elections staffers, who have been dealing with the faulty equipment since February and have only 24 days until the May 2 primary.

``I wasn't surprised because there's been so many batches where there's been problems,'' said Marijean Donofrio, deputy director of the elections board.

At the same time, ES&S failed to keep its promise to have absentee ballots printed and delivered to the board by Thursday a date that already was more than a week tardy.

An ES&S spokeswoman, Jill Friedman Wilson, said she was not aware of any new problem with the memory cards but would look into it.

Regarding the absentee ballots, Wilson said ES&S is working with its printer to get the ballots finished as quickly as possible. ``We appreciate the fact that this needs to be done,'' she said.

The company is expected to face fines in excess of $2,800 for failing to meet the deadline.

Ohio law says absentee ballots for a primary must be ready 35 days in advance which was March 28.

Donofrio said ES&S told board officials Friday that all the absentee ballots would arrive at the board by today. But the company with which ES&S has contracted for the printing told the board's staff that wasn't likely. At best, some of the ballots would arrive today, Donofrio said.

As of Friday, the board had 2,546 requests for absentee ballots but no ballots to put in the mail.

The board has the capability to print a ballot on demand from its computer system, but that system is supposed to be a backup; it's not intended to be used for printing thousands of ballots, Donofrio said.

The board has been using its ballot-on-demand printer for those who walk into the board office to vote absentee. It has printed 146 ballots.

Donofrio said that when the absentee ballots arrive, she expects the board will have to pay overtime to get them proofread and in the mail.

Because there are two partisan primaries and a host of local issues, the board will print 1,800 ballot styles for the May 2 election.

``We're just going to have to work day and night to get them all out,'' Donofrio said.

However, she said she could not estimate what the overtime might cost the county.