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Some kinks still in system

By JIM GAINES, The Daily News, jgaines@bgdailynews.com/783-3242

Friday, November 10, 2006 11:51 AM CST

On an election night that runs smoothly, Warren County clerks can get voting-machine cartridges in the courthouse shortly after polls close at 6 p.m. and begin ing them in a tabulating machine, adding up ballots via computer.
 

Results can then be projected on a big-screen TV upstairs. It shouldn't take long, and by 7:30 p.m. or 8 p.m., watching candidates can usually slap each other on the back, or offer condolences, then head to victory parties or home. Meanwhile, clerks can send their preliminary vote totals on to Frankfort for certification, and be home by 9 p.m., Warren County Clerk Dot Owens said.

But several candidates drifted home Tuesday night without knowing if they'd won, and others waited sleepily until initial totals were posted at 11 p.m. As of Friday morning, deputy clerks were still working on final totals to send to the capital, where they're due to be officially certified at noon Monday.

The counting dragged on for several reasons, Owens said, but all were connected to a problem with the software that accompanied new eSlate electronic voting machines from Lexington-based Harp Enterprises. And Warren County wasn't alone. About 3,000 eSlate machines were bought by 96 of Kentucky's 120 counties, according to the company Web site.

“We saw 19 counties that experienced delays with the Harp machines,” said Les Fugate, director of communications for Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson. “They weren't all related to just the new machines. No county experienced problems with the machines themselves. It was all tabulators of some sort.”

Harp Enterprises referred questions to Roger Baird, president of Harp's election division, who was unavailable for comment this morning.

Owens said that when the voting-machine cartridges were ed in the tabulating machines, the software refused to read some of them. When that was fixed, the system still wouldn't combine vote totals from the new eSlate machines and the older model 1242s still in use, she said.

About 29,000 Warren Countians voted Tuesday, and their ballots were recorded on 61 eSlates and 72 older machines, Owens said. With a ballot of record length, it took hours to add up totals for each race.

That was about twice the usual voter turnout, and long lines at the Rich Pond precinct would have put clerks behind by about an hour anyway, but clerks would've been done by 10 p.m. without software problems, she said.

Fugate said problems could lie with the software itself, with errors by local clerks, or with the tabulating machines. That will be hashed out next week when Grayson meets with Kentucky county clerks to review the election, he said.

Longer-than-normal lines at polling places in Warren County were probably caused not by any machine problem but the length of this year's ballot, Fugate said. The software problems caused delays, but didn't lose or compromise any votes, he said.

“It did not affect the integrity of the vote, and that's what's important,” Fugate said.

Due to the closeness of their races, however, two local candidates want another look at the outcome. After unofficial vote totals showed them with narrow losses, Bowling Green City Commissioner Delane Simpson and Warren County District 2 Magistrate Cedric Burnam asked for recanvasses. Simpson lost to fellow incumbent Commissioner Brian ”Slim” Nash by just 21 votes, while Burnam trailed his Democratic opponent Richard Morgan by 40.

The new machines were bought with a $314,690 grant under the Help America Vote Act, and Harp's product is federally certified to meet national standards, Owens said.

When they arrived, Harp representatives told Owens the new software wouldn't read both types of machines - just the new ones, she said. She insisted it be altered to read both, since Warren County still uses many of the old ones. Harp changed the software, but problems with its use turned up in the May primary, Owens said.

Afterward, Harp fixed several problems and sped up the system, but didn't fix everything, she said. The machine cartridges are picked up by Harp and stored in Frankfort between elections, so there's no chance to really test the system between actual voting, Owens said.

She said since Tuesday, she's talked with Harp and the company has again promised to fix the trouble.

If Owens isn't convinced that's been done by the next election, she plans to pull out the old software designed to handle the 1242 machines' cartridges, run both programs separately, and prepare to add up the totals by hand, she said.

Fugate said Grayson wants to use some additional federal money the state has from the Help America Vote Act to buy more new electronic machines for Kentucky counties. If the system was uniform, software incompatibilities wouldn't arise, he said.

“If we could get all new machines, then we wouldn't have that problem,” Fugate said. The state needs federal authorization to use the money for that purpose, and it still wouldn't be enough; the General Assembly would have to allocate money as well, he said.

The state planned anyway for counties to move eventually to all-new machines, but was going to leave the remaining cost up to each county's finances, Fugate said.

Some wealthier counties, such as Fayette, decided to buy all-new machines very quickly, he said.

“Not everyone has the financial wherewithal to do what Fayette County did, and that's why Secretary Grayson believes we need to step in and help out,” Fugate said.

One way to alleviate many voting problems would be for the General Assembly to authorize early voting - allowing anyone to vote in the days leading up to Election Day, rather than just people who plan to be absent that day, Owens said.

House Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, has advocated the idea.

 



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