Greene relying on paper ballots

BY CARA HOST   Observer-Reporter   21 April 2005

WAYNESBURG ? Even if Greene County's voting machines achieve state recertification at an examination later this week, voters still will use an alternative method, paper ballots, in the May 17 primary, the election board decided Wednesday.

"We can't be jumping back and forth," said Commissioner Pam Snyder, who serves on the election board with the other two commissioners. "This has been like a pingpong match."

The Pennsylvania Department of State outlawed the county's UniLect Patriot electronic voting system earlier this month. However, the state announced last week that it will test the system again Friday. If the UniLect machines perform well, the system might be recertified for use in elections throughout the commonwealth.

"We can't wait for that. The election is three weeks away," said Commissioner Dave Coder.

At least for the primary, the county will convert to an optical-scan system, in which voters will make their ions by filling in ovals with No. 2 pencils. The voters will cast the ballots by ing them into locked ballot boxes at each of the polling places. Election workers will then take the ballot boxes to Greene County Office Building in Waynesburg, where a machine will count the votes.

Election Systems and Software Inc. of Omaha, Neb., will print the ballots, provide the rental equipment and provide representatives to train election workers and help with the process on the day of the primary. The cost will be at least $29,000, but the state should cover all of it.

Greene County voters used paper ballots until 1998, when the county purchased about 95 UniLect Patriot Direct Recording Electronic Voting machines. Under the old paper-balloting system, local election officials were forced to spend hours on election night counting the votes by hand.

For the primary, an optical-scan machine will automatically tabulate the ballots. Election workers will have only to count by hand if there is a call for a manual recount.

The state decertified the UniLect Patriot system because it froze and malfunctioned during testing Feb. 15. The state believes that glitch may explain why there were so many undervotes in the counties that used the machines in the November presidential election. Greene, Mercer and Beaver counties use the UniLect system.

Jack Gerbel, president of UniLect Corp. of Dublin, Calif., disputed the findings cited in the Department of State's examination report, which was released April 8. He said all of the concerns the state had with the machines are easily correctable.

"We were shocked out of our minds when we found out we were decertified. During the examination, there really didn't seem to be any problems," Gerbel said in a phone interview Tuesday. "We feel the (decertification) was done hastily, and we are anxious to get recertified."