Despite concerns voiced by residents, the Athens County Board of Elections selected a company Wednesday that will provide a new voting system. The new system will include touch-screen voting machines to replace its punch-card system.
After narrowing the state's list of six choices to Canton-based Diebold Elections Systems and Nebraska's Election Systems & Software Inc., and after seeing demonstrations from both earlier this month, the board voted to select Diebold.
The machines will be paid for through the secretary of state's office from federal funds of the Help America Vote Act. Each voting system is expected to cost about $2,964.96, said Carlo LoParo, spokesman for Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell. Each voting system includes the machine, software, support for the system, training election workers and a warrantee. Athens County will receive one voting machine for every 200
registered voters.
Board members determined that selecting Diebold would be about $37,000 cheaper than selecting Election Systems & Software, the company that makes the system used now by the board. By switching to a new company, they could use all the $54,906.50 available in grant money to cover the costs, said Kathy Kyle, director of the board of elections.
However, there was some concern about potential voter confusion when using the Diebold system's smart cards - devices about the size of a credit card that are used when people cast their votes.
It really concerns me that (there'll) be confusion on election day
said Penny Brooks, deputy director of the board of elections.
But despite potential problems with smart cards, the board voted 3-1 in favor of Diebold.
They thought the system as a whole was OK Kyle said.
Some Athens County residents, however, said the new voting machines would increase the possibility of errors in counting votes. Another concern involved a reference to a National Public Radio story about the problems of voting machines made by companies such as Diebold.
Athens County resident Wesley Thompson was among those who addressed the council at the meeting.
The time for selecting voting machines for Athens County is not at hand Thompson said. He said he would prefer that the board select a machine that leaves a paper record of a person's vote to ensure that it was counted correctly, instead of the machines the board was considering.
Another resident also suggested the decision on the voting machines be delayed so that potential problems could be addressed. However, time was running out to make a decision about the
voting machines.
The secretary of state has indicated that we must select a voting systems vendor by (yesterday)
said Susan Gwinn, board of elections chairwoman.
The Help America Vote Act of 2002 requires that punch-card voting machines be updated to the touch-screen machines.
It is not an option to retain the punch-card system
Gwinn said.
The earliest the new voting system would be ready for use is August 2004, but it is possible they will not be available until 2005, Kyle said.
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