Voting machines flawed, clerks in Oakland Co. say

December 30, 2006

BY JOHN WISELY

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Machines designed to ease balloting for elderly and disabled voters failed as often as 30% of the time in last month's elections and shouldn't be used again until they are fixed, the Oakland County Clerks Association said Friday.

The group of clerks, who faced hundreds of voters frustrated by the $6,400 AutoMark machines, has asked for them to be recalled.

"I don't think we should use them in February or May unless they are fixed," said Bloomfield Township Clerk Jan Roncelli, who said about 10 of the 29 machines in her township failed during the Nov. 7 elections. No one is saying the failures altered election results, but the problems did slow the tallying and frustrated voters and election workers using them.

Among problems cited:

• Failure to read both sides of a ballot.

• Crinkling of ballots as they passed through.

• Pronunciation errors in audible commands given to blind voters.

Oakland County Clerk Ruth Johnson began surveying city and township clerks on how the new equipment performed in the November election and said Friday about 135 of the 450 machines in the county didn't work properly.

"A 30% failure rate is not acceptable," Johnson said. "We want to know what's going on."

So does the seller of the machines, Election Systems and Software of Omaha, Neb.

"We're working with the state to carefully review any issues that did occur," said Ken Fields, a company spokesman. Fields said the company sent a team to Michigan on Election Day to deal with issues.

The state also is surveying clerks about problems, said Chris Thomas, elections director for the Michigan Secretary of State's Office. Problems are common with new equipment and tend to get worked out over time, he said.

"This is a step-by-step process," Thomas said. "It would be nice if you had a system where you pulled it out of the box and it worked perfectly right away."