Bucks awaits voting figures, machine count  (PA)

JENNA PORTNOY    The Intelligencer   06 October 2008

A month from today Bucks County residents will pick a president using electronic voting machines for the first time, but officials still don't know how many machines they will need.

“We are always re-evaluating how many machines are needed depending on the number of voters,” said county attorney Donna Snyder.

The number, to be finalized after Monday's voter registration deadline, depends not only on registration totals but also the number of absentee ballots requested and whether precincts' voter rolls are up to date, said elections director Deena Dean.

As of Friday, Dean said, voter totals showed 808 machines would be needed. The county already has 765 Danaher electronic voting machines in its inventory. Dean said polling places with 1,400 or fewer voters need two machines, 1,401 to 1,900 voters mean three machines and more than 1,900 voters require four machines.

State statute calls for “not less than one machine per 600 voters,” Snyder said during a board of elections meeting Friday.

The Pennsylvania Department of State, however, recommends a higher machines-to-voter ratio.

In a memo dated Oct. 2, state Elections Commissioner Chet Harhut told county elections officials that counties using Danaher machines should have one machine per 350 voters. There are six such counties in Pennsylvania.

“It is a recommendation, it is not a requirement by law,” said Rebecca Halton, a spokeswoman for the Department of State. “Ultimately the counties determine the number of machines to meet the need for the number of voters they anticipate.”

Harhut wrote in the memo counties should also assume “a larger than usual turnout (potentially 80 percent).” In the 2004 presidential election, Bucks County's turnout was 71 percent, according to county data.

Election watchdogs insisted more machines are needed.

Kathryn Boockvar said Philadelphia, which uses the same machines as Bucks, allocates one machine for every 250 or so voters. (She is a senior attorney with the Advancement Project's voter protection program, but spoke as a Doylestown Township resident.)

The city is “at least in a conceivably good situation for the election,” she said, adding that Bucks is in “absolute noncompliance.”

“I don't think you want to be in that situation this year,” she told commissioners acting as the board of elections.

David Markus, deputy director of voter registration for an organization supporting presidential hopeful Barack Obama, told commissioners Delaware County allocates one machines for about 300 voters.

Madeline Rawley of the Coalition for Voting Integrity said county figures show nearly half of Bucks' 300-some polling places have more than 1,200 voters. She warned commissioners of potentially long lines due to too few machines.

Commissioner Charley Martin, a Republican, said he would defer to Dean's recommendations and Snyder's interpretation of the law.

Martin also directed Snyder to research law regarding emergency paper and provisional ballots. She said provisional ballots are used when a voter does not appear to be registered; paper ballots are used when all machines go down in a polling place.

Advocates from the nonpartisan coalition, however, said paper ballots should be used if just one machine breaks. Democratic Commissioner Diane Marseglia sided with the advocates.