VWH Campbell, Post-Gazette Ted Kopas, chief of staff for Tom Balya, Westmoreland County commissioner, demonstrates the new touch-screen voting machine to voters in New Alexandria last April.

Allegheny and other counties may have to throw away millions of dollars worth of new voting machines unless the manufacturer can develop a printer that meets proposed changes in federal law.

The new Democratic leadership in Congress is pushing for a change in federal law that would require voting machines to have verifiable paper trails so that officials can check routinely for accuracy or hold a recount if there are problems with vote totals.

		Listen in U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle discusses proposed changes to electronic voting: The need for accuracy Goals of new legislation he is sponsoring Electronic voting was rushed into implementation Retrofitting current voting machines

If the change is approved, election officials across the country could face the same type of mad scramble next year that they had in 2006 to have approved machines in place in time for the 2008 primary.

U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, said at a news conference in Pittsburgh yesterday that he is among more than 190 co-sponsors of the bill and expects it to be acted on by early summer.

The proposed change calls for all voting machines to print the type of ballot that can be stored and counted by hand, if necessary, for several years. That type of printer currently isn't available for the touch-screen machines purchased last year by Allegheny and six other counties in Western Pennsylvania and may not be available for any other type of voting machine.

"The bill right now requires a printer with archival paper. As of right now, I don't know of any system that has archival paper," said Regis Young, director of elections in Butler County.

"I hope that doesn't mean we have to scrap what we have."

Butler purchased 490 iVotronic machines from Nebraska-based Electronic Systems & Software for $1.3 million last year, about $400,000 of it local money. In Allegheny County, a $12 million federal grant under the Help America Vote Act covered the cost of 4,600 touch-screen machines.

The machines also were used for the first time last year in Beaver, Cambria, Greene, Mercer and Westmoreland counties.

Nationally, the federal government made $3 billion available last year to help counties buy new machines. Some settled on touch screens and others on optical scanners, where voters fill in bubbles with a pencil to cast their votes. None of them has the type of printer proposed under the House bill.

Mr. Doyle, who appeared at the news conference with Allegheny County Councilmen Rich Fitzgerald and John DeFazio, said the federal government may have moved too quickly last year when it allowed new machines without paper trails. There were a variety of problems across the country, including in Sarasota County, Fla., where an iVotronic system undercounted votes in a congressional race by 18,000.

"I think one of the things we're saying is we've learned," said Mr. Doyle. "This [proposed change] is an indication there were some glitches. We didn't get this to where we want to be."

The bill would provide $300 million to help counties retrofit or replace machines to meet the new standards.

When Allegheny County purchased its machines, the agreement included a clause allowing for the county to purchase printers for $3 million. Mr. Fitzgerald and Mr. DeFazio said it isn't clear yet whether ES&S would honor that price if it needs to develop a different type of printer.

In a statement, ES&S acknowledged discussion about new standards for paper trails but wouldn't say whether it could meet the proposed change. The company has 97,000 voting machines in use across the country.

"Because these are fluid discussions and no formal requirement exists, it is impossible to predict what one might look like in the future," the company said.

Jeffrey W. Greenburg, director of elections in Mercer County, said the company has not told him it couldn't meet the proposed requirement.

"I can tell you I think $300 million would be a spit in the bucket if everybody has to get this kind of printer or get all new machines," said Mr. Greenburg, whose county purchased 290 iVotronic machines for $900,000.

He has asked local congressmen and U.S. senators to delay the requirement until 2009 so that counties aren't trying to break in another new system during a presidential election year.

Mark Wolosik, director of the Allegheny County elections bureau, seemed resigned to meeting whatever federal law requires.

"If this passes, it will be something else we'll have to deal with," he said. "Whatever we have to do, we have to do."

Collin Lynch, a member of VoteAllegheny, said he supports the proposed federal requirements. The organization and others have been advocating a verifiable paper trail for several years.

"[The bill] sets standards. How the county implements them is the key," he said. "My feeling is they've been granted a reprieve. Now, do it right."