A vote for new machines
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The panel charged with reviewing Allegheny County's voting system says the county should consider buying new machines if it can't adapt the existing ones.
But the members of the Allegheny County Citizens Elections System Advisory Panel have said that voting machine companies are changing products so quickly that it is best to watch the market for a while rather than doing anything immediately.
The panel's concerns about the machines are the same as those raised by voters' advocates before the machines were purchased for the 2006 primary: The machines aren't accessible for handicapped people and they don't produce a verifiable paper trail to make sure machine totals are accurate.
The county used a $12 million federal grant under the Help America Vote Act to purchase touch-screen machines last year. Advocates complained about the shortcomings at the time, but the county said other machines weren't certified by the state.
Paul O'Hanlon, the co-founder of the Disability Voting Coalition of Pennsylvania, said the county's attempted remedy to the accessibility issue was to purchase sticks that people could place in their mouths and use to hit the machines. He said there were a number of problems with that plan.
First, no one tested to see if people with disabilities could use the sticks, particularly given that the machines were positioned too high above the ground for people who use wheelchairs. Another issue was that the sticks were not distributed to polling places so if someone wanted to use one they would have to wait while an elections employee ran it out to the poll.
"From my perspective, this doesn't even pass the laugh test," Mr. Hanlon said.
The preferred machine was a model that included optical scan ballots but had a system for people who have disabilities that would affect their ability to use a pencil. That system, the ES&S Model 100 Precinct Optical Scan Reader is used with an ES&S Automark.
The panel recommended, if possible, staying with the current system if it is updated in time for the November 2008 presidential election.
Time is of the essence when it comes to the next presidential election, said Celeste Taylor, a member of the panel and the lead plaintiff in an unsuccessful lawsuit challenging the current system.
"You have to do something or else in 2008 you're not going to be able to do anything," she said.
No action was taken on the recommendations, which were presented to County Council Tuesday night. County Chief Executive Dan Onorato's office had no immediate comment on the report.
First Published August 22, 2007 11:33 pm
