Recall voting machines, clerks say

Oakland County staffers cite malfunctions in equipment for voters who have disabilities.

Catherine Jun / The Detroit News  30 December 2006

City clerks in Oakland County are urging a statewide recall of new voting machines for disabled voters, citing widespread malfunctions in the Nov. 7 election.

The Oakland County Clerks Association announced Friday its formal request, listing problems such as frequent ballot jams, failure to eject ballots and failure to print ballots on both sides.

"It's time they were returned," said Jan Roncelli, Bloomfield Township clerk.

A survey showed that nearly a third of the county's 451 machines did not work properly.

In Bloomfield Township, malfunctions prompted pollsters to recalibrate machines, open them to extract ballots and hand-mark ballots for voters, Roncelli said.

Michigan bought 4,300 of the machines to comply with a 2002 federal law requiring communities make balloting easier for disabled voters a response to the controversial "hanging chads" in Florida during the 2000 presidential election.

Instead of using a pen to fill in ovals, the new machines enable voters to use earphones to hear voice prompts and then indicate their ions on a touch screen, a keypad or through a puff tube.

The machines were bought for $6,400 each with a federal grant.

The clerks association is also urging the state to seek an extension from the federal government to resolve the problems.

"There are issues, yes, and we recognize and empathize with the clerks," said Chris Thomas, who is director of elections for the state.

"But this is going to be a step-by-step process."

He said the state is working with the manufacturer to make improvements, including software upgrades, to better read the perforated ballots.

The state is collecting surveys from city clerks on the performance of the machines and expects to have a complete review by late January, Thomas said.

The machines, called AutoMARKs, are made by Election Systems & Software, an Omaha, Neb., company.

Ken Fields, spokesman for the company, said in a written statement: " the (machine) is certified to the latest federal standards, and has passed rigorous security and technical testing."

The company readied on-call technicians and a troubleshooting command center in the run-up to Election Day, he added.

Neither state officials nor clerks believe the malfunctions resulted in any uncounted votes.