Decision due today on choice in voting machines

The Associated Press    02 June 2005 

COLUMBUS - A judge planned to decide today whether to approve an agreement to extend the deadlines for ion and certification of voting machine systems for 32 counties that have sued Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell.

The counties want a choice of touch-screen electronic voting machines. Only a touch-screen machine made by Diebold Election Systems has met federal and state certification requirements.

Election Systems & Software last month filed a lawsuit to stop Blackwell from enforcing his directive that systems be certified by May 13. ES&S claims Blackwell's certification deadlines were unfair; Blackwell says all vendors were treated equally.

The two parties have been in discussions, along with the counties that joined the lawsuit.

On Wednesday, Blackwell's office and the counties agreed to temporarily extend the deadline for ing vendors to Sept. 15 and for certification to Nov. 1, pending agreement on other issues in the case, Blackwell spokesman Carlo LoParo said.

The extension must be approved by Judge Dale Crawford of Franklin County Common Pleas Court. He was expected to rule today. A hearing will be held in late July, LoParo said.

ES&S says it will meet certification by the end of August at the latest. Blackwell wants systems to be in place for November's municipal elections and says that new systems must be on line by Jan. 1 in case of a special congressional election.

The federal Help America Vote Act requires that new systems be in place for the first federal elections of 2006. The federal government is paying $115 million for the upgrade in Ohio's 88 counties.

The counties that have joined the suit are Allen, Auglaize, Brown, Champaign, Clermont, Clinton, Delaware, Fayette, Franklin, Hamilton, Knox, Lake, Logan, Madison, Mahoning, Meigs, Monroe, Noble, Ottawa, Pickaway, Preble, Putnam, Ross, Sandusky, Seneca, Shelby, Summit, Tuscarawas, Union, Washington, Williams and Wyandotte.