For the sake of voting accuracy
Sunday, November 13, 2005

/byBy ED KAHALLY SR.

Special to the Mobile Register

I congratulate and applaud the county leaders who are resisting the pressure from some state officials and others to force Mobile, Montgomery and DeKalb counties to give up their electronic voting systems and revert to a paper ballot (optical scan) system. 
 

Alabama Secretary of State Nancy Worley and others are pushing this paper ballot system, saying that it is the cheapest in cost. This is not true.

The equipment cost for the paper ballot system may be cheaper, but the printing cost associated with it is extremely expensive. When the total costs are considered, the electronic system is less costly.

I suggest that county commissioners verify this with the state comptroller's office in Montgomery. An analysis of election costs for each county in Alabama will show that the cost per voter with the paper ballot system is considerably higher than the cost with an electronic system.

Mobile County gave up paper ballots more than 60 years ago when it went to mechanical machines, which were far more accurate than paper ballots. Twenty years ago, Mobile County adopted the Shouptronic electronic system, which was an advancement over the mechanical machines.

For the past 20 years, Mobile County has had numerous elections with few problems.

In my more than 50 years of oper ating various businesses in Mobile, I am most proud of the fact that I sold this excellent voting system to Mobile County. I am no longer in the voting machine business, but as a concerned citizen I would hate to see Mobile revert to paper ballots.

I believe that if all counties in Alabama are forced to use a paper ballot system, we will have problems similar to the problems in Florida in the 2000 presidential election. Paper ballot systems have a high error rate.

For an Alabama example of what can and did happen with paper ballot systems, look at the near-fiasco in Baldwin County in the last governor's race. Baldwin County uses the optical scanner/paper ballot system.

Rather than go backward, our leaders should strive to provide the citizens of Mobile County with the best voting system on the market today.

The federal Help America Vote Act, known as HAVA, provides grant money and sets standards that must be met. HAVA leaves the ion of a voting system up to the state (or county and/or city.) There are several electronic systems which meet all of the HAVA requirements, and they can be purchased with HAVA money.

I suggest that Mobile County commissioners insist that Secretary of State Nancy Worley provide Mobile County with its share of that HAVA grant money, and that they purchase a system of their choice with this money.

No state committee has the authority to tell Mobile County what it has to do. The state of Alabama has laws which govern who can purchase voting systems in Alabama. There is a recent attorney general's opinion which specifically states that the counties and/or cities in Alabama have the authority to purchase voting systems.

Mobile County commissioners and the probate judge are working hard to resolve this issue. I know that all involved are concerned about meeting deadlines. But I also know HAVA will grant extensions to counties that are having trouble meeting their requirements.

We need not rush into doing the wrong thing.