County seeks new voting system

By Chris Metinko      Contra Costa Times    31 August 2005

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

The board voted unanimously Tuesday to request proposals 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 between $6 million to $14 million, according to a letter prepared for the supervisors by Elaine Ginnold, Alameda County's acting registrar of voters. However, the county could receive nearly $8.8 million from the federal Help America Vote Act as reimbursement for the new equipment.

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 touchscreen voting system in response to problems the system showed in tests during July.

The county has about 4,000 Diebold touchscreens 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 touchscreens for newer models 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.

According to Ginnold, due to a variety of factors including increases in the number of absentee voters, state and federal requirements for voting systems being currently in flux, and the expense of installing printers to touchscreens it is imprudent for the county to invest in a large number of electronic voting machines.

The county is expected to issue the request Sept. 9, with the proposals due back Oct. 11. The target date for recommending a vendor to the board is Nov. 8.