HERNANDO ? DeSoto County may be on a collision course with Secretary of State Eric Clark over voting machines.

Rino Dolbi    The DeSoto Times    19 July 2005

At Monday?s Board of Supervisors meeting County Election Commission Chairman Paul Beale said the county?s optical scan voting machines meet all federal requirements under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).
Clark, however, has entered into a contract with Diebold Corporation to provide touch screen video voting machines to counties throughout Mississippi.
DeSoto County abandoned its punch card voting machines following the 2000 presidential election which showed major problems with them in Florida.
The new optical scan units, which read a paper card ballot which then acts as a backup, cost the county about $250,000. The county anticipated it would be reimbursed when federal funds became available to replace old voting systems but the money never materialized.
The Secretary of State?s office oversees county, state and federal elections in Mississippi.
?He (Clark) has never given us anything,? said Supervisor Gene Thach. ?I am not a happy camper.?
Beale said he believes the system the county now has is far superior to the Diebold touch screen that Clark is promoting.
?I think it was the best decision the county ever made for the people of DeSoto County to buy this system,? he said. ?I?m not happy about it (Clark?s decision) one bit.?
County officials are aware that some alterations will have to be made at some of the 35 precincts to accommodate handicapped voters as required by HAVA. Also, a minimum of one touch screen unit with head phones for the visually impaired will have to be purchased before 2006.
County Administrator Michael Garriga said a meeting is scheduled for Thursday in Robinsonville in Tunica County so that area officials can be briefed on the new touch screen voting machines by officials from Diebold and the Secretary of State?s office.
The state purchased 5,164 of the new machines and 173 have been allocated to DeSoto County. Supervisor Tommy Lewis said he thought the county would need twice that many to keep from having long waits at the polls.
Beale said another drawback to the touch screen machine is that it must be programmed for each voter if there is a split ballot. He said 29 precincts in DeSoto County have split ballots because they are represented by different state representatives and senators.
?Who?s going to program that machine each time a voter walks up,? he said.
The touch screen also cannot handle an absentee ballot.
Beale said the county may also be penalized financially if it opts out not to buy the new touch screen units. He said Clark is requiring that every county submit names of voters to establish a statewide voter registration list. Beale said the county could be forced to pay a hefty fee to be put on that list if it does not take the touch screen machines.
?My thinking is he is penalizing all the populous counties,? said Beale.
Thach said Clark, who is a Democrat, has never done well in pulling votes in DeSoto County and is playing politics with the issue.
The touch screen unit also does not have a paper backup system, as does the optical scan, but can be outfitted with one for an additional $500 per unit. Federal law requires a back up.
Beale said DeSoto County has had excellent results with the optical scan unit and few complaints.
He said the county has some precincts with as many as 4,000 registered voters while most counties have precincts that average around 400.
?We don?t have that many complaints on election day,? he said. ?And most of those are from people who have moved and failed to register their new address.?
?You need to work closely with our attorney,? Thach told Beale. ?I think eventually we are going to have to go to court over this. This is federal money we are talking about.?

Rino Dolbi/Times Staff