Westmoreland County likes to lead the pack when it comes to state or federally mandated government innovations. So when word came from Washington, D.C., in 2002 that all voting machines must soon meet new federal standards, Westmoreland's board of commissioners told Election Bureau head Paula Pedicone to get rolling.

Today, the board will consider a resolution to buy 750 touch-screen iVotronic voting machines from Nebraska-based Election Systems and Software Inc. with $3 million of federal Help America Vote Act grant money.

Not everyone is sold on the new system or the procedure the county has followed in recommending it.

Penn Township resident and 15-year poll worker Mary Beth Kuznik plans to confront the board on their choice of machines and the perceived lack of public input in the selection process. She also will announce formation of a regional coalition of people who want each new voting machine to create a legible, durable paper record of all votes cast.

"A lot of other counties are going through this, and most of them -- like Mercer, Beaver, and Allegheny -- had public hearings or displayed the machines they were considering," Ms. Kuznik said. "But not Westmoreland. Instead they hired a $2,500-a-month consultant and took his word for it. The public never had a chance."

Ms. Kuznik is a member of Vote PA, and travels throughout the country speaking on voter rights. She helped re-count votes in several Ohio precincts after irregularities were detected in the 2004 presidential race.

She calls her present push a "yes-we-do- care-and-you-never-even-asked-us" campaign. She said residents of Allegheny, Beaver, Washington, Butler, Mercer, Lawrence, and Armstrong counties are part of the coalition.

Ms. Pedicone said a panel of community representatives helped her shop for new voting machines, and commissioners duly advertise their meetings, where citizens can ask questions and express opinions.

All five machine models they examined can produce paper receipts, she said -- one was built-in, and others must be retrofitted. State election authorities haven't decided if receipts are required, so she and the commissioners decided to add them later, only if they must.

The iVotronic would require a retrofit, Ms. Pedicone said, but even with the extra equipment, it's cheaper than the other units.

Consultant Hugh Gallagher had no say in which machine was chosen, Ms. Pedicone added. His fees -- renegotiated to $2,000 per month -- include help with writing grant proposals, oversight in setting up the new system, and training about 1,200 poll workers to use them, all in time for the May primary.

One reason the board is choosing the iVotronic units is the company's ties to William Penn Printing in Pittsburgh, a company that's supplied ballots and instruction books to Westmoreland polls for decades, Ms. Pedicone said.

"William Penn Printing knows our system, and they're the Pennsylvania rep for ES&S, the iVotronic company. If something goes wrong, they're a half-hour down the road," Ms. Pedicone said.

She sighs when she considers the 800-pound, 50-year-old lever-operated voting machines the county is now warehousing.

"They work just fine. But this wasn't our decision," she said. "It's a federal law, brought about by the 2000 presidential election. Is this a solution? We're going to find out."