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Alternate voting machine is costly
The County Council faces a decision that could force $2 million more in spending.

Kevin P. Connolly | Orlando Sentinel   November 25, 2005

DeLAND After a months' long fight against paperless voting machines, Volusia County might have to give in and buy them after all. But the purchase may end up costing taxpayers roughly $2 million more than originally expected to provide accessible voting for the visually disabled.

That's because one of the proposals County Council members will consider next month calls for switching to an entirely new voting system.Initially, council members were only asked to supplement their existing system of paper-ballot readers by buying 210 touch screens and related equipment from their voting-equipment vendor, Diebold Election Systems Inc., for $776,935, with the expense mostly covered by a federally funded state grant.

Now, a new proposal calls for spending the grant, which must be returned if not used by Jan. 1, and spending an additional $2 million or so in local tax dollars to fund a massive equipment changeover.

That plan calls for replacing all the existing equipment supported by the McKinney, Texas-based subsidiary of Diebold Inc. with a new set of devices from Omaha, Neb.-based Election Systems & Software.

The switchover still wouldn't give some council members and voting-equipment activists what they really want a device that allows visually disabled people a way to vote independently and that provides a paper ballot for voter verification and recounts.

But, according to some officials, the switch would put the county in the best position to add another device in the future that will provide accessibility and a paper trail. That device is a ballot-marking machine called AutoMark that has a touch-screen interface.

AutoMark is considered mostly likely to earn state certification first as a companion for equipment from ES&S, its marketing and distribution partner.

County Chairman Frank Bruno, a foe of paperless voting and supporter of the AutoMark option, said a proposal with ES&S will include a provision to trade-in the ES&S touch screens for the AutoMark devices after they get state approval.

Bruno said council members will likely have just two choices during the Dec. 15 meeting approve a contract for about $2.7 million with ES&S for a new system, including 210 touch screens, or opt for an agreement with Diebold for almost $800,000 for 210 touch screens and related equipment.

Delaying a decision, though, won't be an option, said Bruno, because of the Jan. 1 federal deadline to purchase equipment to comply with the accessibility provision in the federal Help America Vote Act.

"So it's going to be one or the other," Bruno said. "We're down to the wire."

In key decisions this year, a slim majority of County Council members have opposed buying touch-screen voting machines because in Florida they don't use paper ballots or print out receipt-like tapes for voters to verify their choices.

None of Florida's three voting-equipment vendors ES&S, Diebold and Oakland, Calif.-based Sequoia Voting Systems have touch screens certified for use in Florida with the so-called "voter-verified paper trail" sought by some activists.

Elsewhere in Central Florida, Lake County is one of 15 counties in Florida that became compliant with the new accessibility requirements early by switching to touch screens that can be equipped with "audio ballots" and headphones for the visually disabled to vote independently.

The other 52 counties, including most of Central Florida, primarily use scanners that read paper ballots, although most of those counties, including Orange and Seminole, this year purchased supplemental touch screens to meet the new accessibility requirements.

The law requires at least one accessible device per precinct.

Volusia's history of high-profile voting glitches and close elections is thought to be among the reasons the county became a battleground for opponents of paperless voting.

Susan Pynchon, executive director of DeLand-based Florida Fair Elections Coalition, said she thought state certification of the AutoMark devices was long overdue.

But buying ES&S devices in anticipation the state will approve AutoMark soon is an acceptable option.

"I would just say that I have confidence that the County Council will do what's right for the people of Volusia County and what's right is to have verifiable elections," she said, adding that "I have no doubt the AutoMark will be certified."

A spokeswoman for the state Division of Elections couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday.

RobertResuali, a sales representative for AutoMark, said the company has put in applications with the state to be certified with Diebold and ES&S systems.

But the most progress has been made with the ES&S application, he said Wednesday.

It has completed the first phase of the process, which includes developing a mock election for testing purposes. The next phase, which Resuali thinks is the final step, involves a "mass ballot" test of the devices, he said.

Volusia County Elections Supervisor Ann McFall previously has raised concerns about replacing her entire system because of training and other matters, especially since it would happen in the months leading up to a high-profile 2006 gubernatorial election.



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