Voting machines for disabled won't be ready for fall election

JON GAMBRELL
THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

Whatcom County?s touch-screen voting machines, purchased to help the county?s disabled residents vote unassisted, will not be ready for this year?s election because current models do not comply with newer federal laws.
The machines, built by California-based Sequoia Voting Systems Inc., do not have controls for voters to change font sizes or control the display?s contrast or audio. All three of those controls are required by next year?s election as mandated by the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002.
?Sequoia meets 2002 standards,? said Whatcom County Auditor Shirley Forslof. ?We?re going to wait and purchase them when they get all of the enhancements done.?
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The machines, as required by law, would allow the disabled to vote on their own, in some cases using audio or visual cues as guides.
Other methods Forslof requested for the retooled machines include a tube to allow a paralyzed person to blow onto the touch screen or footpad controls. However, she said law does not require them.

Forslof said the new machines wouldn?t cost any more than the initial $554,449 the county invested in the new voting equipment.
Without the machines, the county?s disabled voters will have to cast mail-in ballots from their homes this year, Forslof said.

Whatcom County abandoned its punch card ballots earlier this year and turned into a vote-by-mail county. By going vote-by-mail, the county avoided spending more than $1.6 million to outfit all of the county?s polls with touch-screen machines.