County first to comply with election rules

By Sebastian Kitchen    Montgomery Advertiser    28 December 2005

Montgomery County is the first jurisdiction in Alabama to meet the Sunday deadline of full compliance with a federal law intended to prevent a repeat of the 2000 presidential election debacle in Florida.

The Help America Vote Act, or HAVA, addresses the administration of all aspects of federal elections from updating voting equipment to improving polling place accessibility. Passed in 2002, the statute requires all states to comply by Jan. 1, 2006. About a third of the states will miss the deadline, according to the Election Reform Information Project on its Web site.

Montgomery, Mobile and DeKalb counties were the only ones in the state that needed to replace their entire voting systems to comply with the act. Nine other counties must make significant changes to comply.

"I have been committed all along to making sure that Montgomery County is fully HAVA compliant before the deadline," said Probate Judge Reese McKinney, the county's chief election official.

Montgomery County received nearly 150 new voting machines last week and will begin training election staff in January. The county picked up the $2.05 million cost but expects to be reimbursed by the federal government.

The new voting system uses optical scan readers to tabulate votes, which are marked on a paper ballot. The ballots and optical scan create a paper trail, another requirement under HAVA, in the event of a recount.

Compliant with federal law, each precinct will have at least one voting machine to accommodate people with disabilities, who should be able to vote privately and independently.

Montgomery County voters will use new equipment for the first time in more than two decades when they go to the polls for the June 6 primary. The general election is Nov. 7.

"Change is always a challenge," McKinney said. "This is a change for the best."

McKinney said election officials will set up the voting equipment in shopping malls, grocery stores, civic clubs and churches to allow voters to view the system and become familiar with it before next year's elections.

There will public demonstrations and "mock" elections throughout the county, McKinney said.