Election issues remain unresolved

By Kelly Townsend
The Times-Journal

Published November 23, 2005

Time is running out for the DeKalb County Commission to get new election machines in place, DeKalb County Commission President Sid Holcomb said Tuesday.

During an earlier November meeting, Holcomb said the federal government is requiring the county have paper trails with its election machines. DeKalb?s current voting machines do not have a paper trail.

The commission had asked for a year?s extension, but County Administrator Matt Sharp said Tuesday the county has received no word on the request. He also said the county is moving forward under the assumption the extension won?t happen.

?We are going to have to figure out what we are going to do and quick,? Holcomb said. ?We just don?t have a lot of time left. ?

Sharp said Secretary of State Nancy Worley has originally said the state would pay for machines that hold 2,400 registered voters. That would force DeKalb to trim its number of voting machines from 83 to 15.

The cost of 83 machines, according to Sharp, is around $700,000.

?[The state] knows our dilemma and that this would be very hard for us to do in such a short period of time,? Holcomb said. ?Now we are just waiting to see if they are going to be willing to pay for more machines.?

Holcomb said he didn?t know how the county would pay for the rest of the machines.

Holcomb said he has not received guidance from Worley on the exact number of machines the state will pay for.

?I had wanted to have a meeting today with the election officials to get things rolling in regards to the election machines, ? Holcomb said. ?But I haven?t heard back from her.?

Probate Judge Ronnie Osborn said he had also been trying to call Worley and had not heard from her.

Calls to Worley weren?t not returned Tuesday.

The machines need to be in place by March in order to train poll workers and have everything ready for the June primaries.

Holcomb said the County Commission Association would bid the machines to the counties, and those bids are scheduled to be awarded Dec. 12.

?By then we need to know how many machines we need,? Holcomb said. ?We also need to figure out how we are going to pay for the rest of the machines, but we can?t do that until we know exactly how many machines we are going to do.?

Holcomb said one option is to close polling sites,