Alameda County seeks new electronic voting system

Chris Metinko     Contra Costa Times    30 August 2005

OAKLAND - The Alameda County Board of Supervisors is seeking a new electronic voting system that could meet both state and federal requirements by January 1.

The board voted unanimously today to request proposal for a "blended" voting system that would have one or two touchscreens plus one optical scanner at each polling place.

The new system could cost anywhere between $6 million to $14 million, according to a letter prepared for the supervisors by Elaine Ginnold, Alameda County's acting register of voters. However, the county could receive nearly $8.8 million from the federal Help America Vote Act.

The decision to pursue the new blended system comes after a county decision earlier this month to revisit its agreement with Diebold Election Systems for a $6 million upgrade of its touch-screen voting system responding to problems the system showed in tests during July.

The county has about 4,000 Diebold touch-screens it uses in elections, but faces new mandates beginning in January that require all such electronic equipment to provide voters with printouts to verify their votes.

In late June, county supervisors inked an agreement with Diebold to negotiate a $6 million upgrade in which it would exchange its touch-screens for newer models that come equipped with printers to meet the pending requirements.

But those plans were cast into doubt in July when Secretary of State Bruce McPherson announced the new Diebold machines had failed a battery of tests and could not be certified by the state.