New voting machines OK'd by committees
Decision puts Mobile County one step closer to replacing 450 ballot devices

October 05, 2005
By BILL BARROW    Mobile Register 

MONTGOMERY Mobile County is one step closer to buying new voting machines to comply the Help America Vote Act of 2002 and other federal guidelines in time for next year's elections.

Following tense debate and a series of divided votes, the state's Electronic Voting Committee approved a list of voting systems that counties can buy. Under state law, counties must buy machines that have been certified by the committee.

Mobile County Probate Judge Don Davis said he needed action from the committee to replace 450 touch-screen voting machines at a total cost ranging anywhere from $3 million to $10 million. But Davis said he cannot move forward until another state panel the Help America Vote Act Committee meets Friday to discuss specific guidelines for voting systems and rules for counties to be reimbursed for their purchases. 
 

Davis said he will not buy any machines for which Mobile County cannot be reimbursed with federal money. He also said the county will not purchase any systems that do not give access to disabled voters, a requirement under HAVA.

The key component of HAVA mandates that all voting machines in the United States leave a paper trail subject to recounts. Mobile County, along with Montgomery and DeKalb counties are the only three of Alabama's 67 counties to use to touch-screen machines that issue no paper trail.

Montgomery and DeKalb officials have already decided to move to optical scan systems that use paper ballots. Davis said he and other Mobile officials still want to buy touch-screen machines that meet HAVA regulations. "That's what voters are familiar with and they've served us well for many years," he said.

The county's existing machines cannot be modified to meet the requirements, Davis said.

The federal deadline for meeting HAVA regulations is Jan. 1, 2006. Alabama lawmakers set a state deadline of Jan. 1, 2005 a deadline state officials have now missed by nine months.

Davis joined other local government officials and voting system vendors in the State House Tuesday to urge the committee to action.

"We're already a year behind where we need to be to buy the machines, train our staff and train poll workers," Davis told the committee.

Several disabled voters were also on hand to stress the need for the state to certify systems that they can use easily.

The committee met in August but was divided 2-2 on how to move forward. Disagreements then, and again Tuesday, centered on what standards to use in approving new voting systems.

Secretary of State Nancy Worley, a Democrat, and state Rep. Priscilla Dunn, D-Bessemer, wanted to use 2002 federal standards immediately. They also proposed that counties comply with 2005 standards (that are still being finalized in Washington, D.C.) for the 2008 election cycle.

Committee Chairman Bill English, the Republican Probate Judge from Lee County, and Assistant Attorney General Rushing Payne, proxy for Republican Attorney General Troy King, opposed Worley's motions. The two men argued that state law does not give the Electronic Voting Committee the power to set such guidelines if they effectively "decertify" existing machines that have already received the panel's approval in the past.

Sen. Jeff Enfinger, D-Huntsville, attended Tuesday's meeting and effectively settled the disputes, voting with the committee's two Republicans. He told Worley, "If this committee needs more authority then we can go to the Legislature and seek more authority."

Enfinger also voted with English and Payne to seek an attorney general's advisory opinion on the committee's powers. Payne said he would have no role in drafting the opinion. Worley, however, opposed the motion, saying, "I know how an attorney general's opinion will turn out when I know you're opinion and you're sitting here for the attorney general."