Summit joins elections suit

Elections board opposes deadline of state for picking voting machine

By Lisa A. Abraham    Akron Beacon Journal    25 May 2005

The Summit County Board of Elections is joining a lawsuit against Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell over the deadline for choosing a new voting system.

The board voted 3-0 on Tuesday to become a party in the suit filed this month by Election Systems & Software Inc. The Nebraska-based voting-machine maker contends that deadlines established by Blackwell for election boards in Ohio's counties to choose new voting systems and for systems to win state certification are arbitrary and eliminate all vendors except Green-based Diebold Co.

The case is pending in Franklin County Common Pleas Court in Columbus.

Joining the lawsuit is an effort by the board to gain more time to decide. Blackwell previously told election boards that Tuesday was the deadline for them to choose new voting systems. The deadline for a company's machines to be certified was May 13.

The judge presiding over the Election Systems & Software suit issued a ruling Monday giving counties until Friday to decide whether they want to join the suit. The judge also determined that counties that are party to the suit have until June 3 to pick a voting system.

Todd Mullen, a representative of ES&S who made a pitch for his company's equipment at Tuesday's board meeting, said the date may be extended to as late as August.

Diebold's was the only touch-screen voting machine with a voter-verified paper audit trial to be certified by the state's deadline. Diebold and ES&S both have had their optical-scan systems certified.

Mullen said ES&S expects its touch-screen equipment with a paper trial to be certified by the end of July.

He encouraged the board to become a party to the suit. ``You're joining the lawsuit to get more time,'' he said.

Board's views

After discussing the matter in an executive session, the board voted unanimously to join the lawsuit. Member Joseph Hutchinson, a Republican, was absent.

Board member Russ Pry, a Democrat, said he was not prepared to make a decision Tuesday on what voting equipment to buy. Other members agreed.

Board member Alex Arshinkoff, a Republican, said: ``We have to make sure the public understands the system we is going to respect their vote and that it is counted accurately and fairly.''

Summit became the 18th county to join the suit, and several others are expected to do so this week, said ES&S spokeswoman Jill Friedman-Wilson.

Blackwell spokesman Carlo LoParo said Tuesday the secretary of state's office is hopeful the lawsuit can be resolved quickly because the state wants to get new voting systems installed to be in compliance with the federal Help America Vote Act. One of the goals of that law is to eliminate punch-card voting the system used in Summit and many other Ohio counties by the first federal election of 2006.

Summit may sue, too

At the same time, the Summit board is exploring a lawsuit of its own against Blackwell over the amount of federal money the county will receive to buy a new voting system.

The board asked county Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh to explore its rights under the federal voting law to see what money the county is entitled to.

Under the law, every county has been allotted a sum to buy new voting systems; the allocation is based on the number of voters in the county. Summit County's allocation has been set at about $5.3 million. However, if the county chooses an optical-scan system rather than a touch-screen system, the equipment purchase is expected to cost only about $2.5 million.

The election board wants to be sure that it gets to keep the difference.

``We're prepared to fight for every dollar. We're entitled to it,'' said board member Wayne Jones, a Democrat.

LoParo said it's too soon to discuss how any extra money would be allocated, before the state meets its obligation to replace the punch-card systems.

``We're working through the process, and we're certain that a mutually agreed-upon solution can be reached,'' LoParo said.

Activists' concerns

Also at the meeting, the board listened to activists who urged it to take time to decide.

Greg Coleridge of the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee told the board that voter confidence is based on both reality and perception, and he urged them not to make such an important decision in haste.

Victoria Lovegren of Ohio Vigilance, who is a computer scientist and math professor at Case Western Reserve University, cautioned the board against buying touch-screen machines. She contends that they can be tampered with to control elections.

She encouraged the board to buy optical-scan machines that use a paper ballot, for verification and recount purposes.

Just because the touch-screen machines are slick and easy to use does not make them the best for a good democracy, Lovegren said.