County ready to voting

Vendors demonstrate machines for elections

By Deidre Bello
Iowa City Press-Citizen    03 May 2005

Supervisor Terrence Neuzil enters a test ballot for service manager Dennis Bengtson of Command Central while Supervisor Rod Sullivan looks on Monday as the Johnson County Board of Supervisors reviewed voting machines.  Press-Citizen / Matthew Holst 

Johnson County officials have more money to shop for new voting machines this month to bring equipment in line with federal regulations before local school board elections.

Supervisors and staff in the auditor's office want to begin negotiations by May 12 with a potential vendor so they can meet a June 1 deadline to sign a contract, Auditor Tom Slockett said. The county has been looking for new voting equipment for years, but a new elections policy has brought them closer to decision time.

The county has about $270,000 in reserve funds for election expenses and had a $606,000 allocation from Iowa Secretary of State Chet Culver. That allocation has since grown to $635,180.

Culver approved a 2005 Iowa Help America Vote Act Voting System Funding Program in March that outlines a schedule for Iowa counties to use $17.5 million to help purchase equipment and meet a January 2006 deadline to comply with federal election law. Additional HAVA provisions require that all polling locations are equipped with accessible machines to allow voters with disabilities to cast their ballots privately and independently.

According to the new pay schedule, Linn County will receive $925,665 under the funding program; Scott County will receive $756,000, and Polk County will receive about $1.7 million.

The additional funding has made the industry for election equipment more competitive, said Lee Storebeck, president of Command Central a vendor for Sequoia Voting Systems. In the past, vendors have had to justify to county officials why they should equipment, but now officials are being required to make a purchase because of federal regulations, he said.

On Monday, supervisors and staff with the auditor's office watched demonstrations for voting equipment by Sequoia and Elections Systems and Software, the county's current vendor.

Supervisors will decide May 12 whether they can gain a cost savings advantage by ing a vendor on their own or wait to see which vendor the state s May 16.

"We will make a ion and begin negotiating with them for equipment they want," Slockett said. "Then we will be in that process when we see what the state contract is and then decide if we have an advantage."

The board approved a plan last week that outlined what features it wants in the new equipment. Those features include the ability to scan ballots, direct recording electronics or touch screen machines, ear phones for people with visual impairments, language options, high speed counters and a recount feature.

During the November 2004 elections, the Johnson County Auditor's Office saw a sharp increase in voter activity at its 578 precincts and through absentee ballot voting. Budget costs rose because of changes in elections law to meet federal voting standards and new administrative rules.

The county is reviewing equipment by Elections Systems and Software, Sequoia, AccuPoll and Diebold Accu Vu.