Touch-screen machines attract bipartisan opposition

By JIM PROVANCE
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU

COLUMBUS - A pair of Senate Republican and Democratic leaders yesterday sought to block Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell from awarding contracts for the purchase of new voting technology.

In a rare partnership with a Democrat, Sen. Jeff Jacobson (R., Vandalia), joined forces with Sen. Teresa Fedor (D., Toledo) to urge the State Controlling Board not to release state or federal funds for the machines.

"The law contemplated an extension to 2006," said Mr. Jacobson. "There?s absolutely no justification for rushing to get it wrong." The Republican has clashed with Mr. Blackwell over electronic voting since they served together on a task force on the issue more than a year ago.

Congress has appropriated $133 million to help the state purchase the machines and meet other requirements of the federal Help America Vote Act. The law was passed in the wake of problems experienced with punch-card ballots during the disputed 2000 presidential election in Florida.

Mr. Blackwell, a Republican, has approved contracts with three vendors - Diebold Elections Systems, Election Systems and Software, and Maximus/Hart Intercivic - for the purchase of electronic touch-screen and optical-scan voting machines.

He said yesterday a delay would create touch-screen supply problems and that he might be forced to unilaterally deploy optical-scan machines statewide, a move that would negate decisions already made in most counties.

Optical scans employ paper ballots read electronically. They could be more quickly installed, do not face the same security questions, and already supply voters with a second chance to review their votes.

"Ohio is in for a very close presidential race," he said. "The folks who advocate delay own the problem. This is nothing to be playing petty politics with."

He noted that the state also faces a federal court threat in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union-Ohio, and that the issue could be taken out of the state?s hands if it proceeds too slowly.

Mr. Jacobson and Ms. Fedor have asked current Senate and House leadership to create a bipartisan panel to examine the vendors? response to security flaws flagged by studies conducted in Ohio and Maryland.

Included in that review would be discussion as to whether the machines should include a verifiable paper audit trail, an issue that has yet to be resolved at the federal level and is not mandated in vendor contracts.

"When you put your vote into that electronic touch screen, how do you know your vote is really counted?" asked Ms. Fedor. "When was the last time your computer crashed?"

Last fall, a study commissioned by Mr. Blackwell raised 57 potential security hardware, software, and procedural flaws with the touch-screen machines with suggestions that some of the problems could open the machines to election tampering.

Mr. Blackwell has ordered the companies to patch the holes in their systems and then seek federal recertification as conditions for getting Ohio business.

Seventy-one of Ohio?s 88 counties still use punch-card ballots. Mr. Blackwell had hoped to have some converted to electronic voting by August, more by November, and then the rest in 2005.