Brevard touchscreen tab to hit at least $1 million

BY JOHN MCCARTHY
FLORIDA TODAY

Brevard County will have to spend at least $1 million buying ATM-like touchscreen voting systems by 2006.

Federal voting reform laws passed in 2002 requires each polling place has at least one such screen for blind voters. The machines have an audio option that allow sight-impaired voters to listen to ballot choices through headphones and vote using a handset similar to a video-game controller.

There are about 200 polling places in Brevard. "We will comply with whatever law they come up with," Brevard Supervisors of Elections Fred Galey said. "But it won't be cheap."

The law called for the federal government to help pay for new voting machines , but the money has been slow in coming.

"I expect some unfunded madates," Galey said.

In 1999, Brevard County replaced its creaky punch card voting system with the optical scanner system county voters now use. That spared the county the election problems that plagued Palm Beach and other counties. Election reform laws required those counties to replace the punch card machines with either optical scan or touchscreen machines. Fifteen counties chose the touchscreen machines.

"They all work," Galey said. "I like what I've got better because it already has a paper ballot" that can be used to verify votes in case of a recount.