Mark Naymik and Julie Carr Smyth
Plain Dealer Reporters

A group of Ohio's largest counties, including Cuyahoga, refused Thursday to meet a state deadline for selecting new voting machines until Secretary of State Ken Blackwell can guarantee that the machines are secure. At the same time, more than half the counties that were required to select a voting-machine maker chose the company whose security problems have gained it the most scrutiny nationally: Diebold Election Systems. The Canton-based company has landed more than $31 million in contracts statewide. The large counties protesting - including Democrat-dominated Cuyahoga, Republican-heavy Hamilton, and Montgomery - said too many security and cost-related questions remain about the new systems.

Among their chief concerns: 57 separate security risks found in the machines during an independent review that Blackwell commissioned, which have not all been fixed yet; the machines' long-term costs; and whether the machines should produce a paper receipt. "Those security issues need to be worked out and the paper-trail issue needs to be clarified before we will make a decision," said Tom Coyne, chairman of Cuyahoga's elections board. Blackwell has said that he is confident the security flaws can be corrected by the voting-machine makers and that his office will be responsible for making sure they are fixed. "Those issues will be corrected or that vendor will not operate in Ohio," Carlo LoParo, a spokesman for Blackwell, said Thursday. 

That promise is not good enough for all elections officials, particularly in some larger counties where elections are more complex than in small, rural counties - and local officials might be left holding the political bag if something goes wrong. "While, as you, we believe those security flaws can be corrected, until we are advised that they have been, we are not comfortable selecting any of the vendors," Hamilton County officials wrote in a recent letter to Blackwell. 

Still, 62 of 71 counties participating in the statewide upgrade from punch cards met Thursday's deadline, allowing Blackwell's office to proceed with contracts for nearly 15,000 machines statewide. Diebold secured contracts with 40 counties, representing about 10,000 machines. Its competitors won much less: - Election Systems & Software (11), Hart Intercivic (seven), and Sequoia Voting Systems (four). 

So the indecision of some of Ohio's most populous counties remains significant. Uncommitted counties control about 12,300 machines statewide. Seventeen counties were not required to meet Thursday's deadline because they already replaced their paper-ballot systems. Several counties narrowed their choices to two vendors or systems. All four voting-machine makers were short-listed by Blackwell to compete for a piece of the $161 million set aside by the federal government for upgrading Ohio's voting systems. LoParo said state officials will meet with each undecided county to try to resolve their concerns. LoParo would not say how long Blackwell will wait, or whether Blackwell would choose a voting system for these counties. But he emphasized that federal law holds Blackwell's office responsible for making sure that the paper-ballot systems are replaced by January 2006. "We will ask the counties to make a selection before we consider any other action," LoParo said. He said Thursday's deadline was set to allow the state time to finalize the contracts and to give vendors time to produce the machines before the election deadlines. To reach these Plain Dealer reporters: mnaymik@plaind.com, 216-999-4800 jsmyth@plaind.com, 1-800-228-8272

A group of Ohio's largest counties, including Cuyahoga, refused Thursday to meet a state deadline for selecting new voting machines until Secretary of State Ken Blackwell can guarantee that the machines are secure.

At the same time, more than half the counties that were required to select a voting-machine maker chose the company whose security problems have gained it the most scrutiny nationally: Diebold Election Systems. The Canton-based company has landed more than $31 million in contracts statewide.

The large counties protesting - including Democrat-dominated Cuyahoga, Republican-heavy Hamilton, and Montgomery - said too many security and cost-related questions remain about the new systems.

Among their chief concerns: 57 separate security risks found in the machines during an independent review that Blackwell commissioned, which have not all been fixed yet; the machines' long-term costs; and whether the machines should produce a paper receipt.

"Those security issues need to be worked out and the paper-trail issue needs to be clarified before we will make a decision," said Tom Coyne, chairman of Cuyahoga's elections board.

Blackwell has said that he is confident the security flaws can be corrected by the voting-machine makers and that his office will be responsible for making sure they are fixed. More.... (link to Plain Dealer article)



OHIO: Electronic voting delayed
By TOM GIAMBRONI
1.9.04

LISBON, OHIO — Electronic voting probably won’t be coming to the county until 2005 at the earliest. Madhu Singh, a field representative for Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, said her boss sought and received a federal waiver extending the deadline for implementation of statewide electronic voting.

When Congress passed a new voting law following the Florida presidential election debacle in 2000, states were required to replace voting systems with an electronic voting system by the 2004 presidential election.

Blackwell had been holding off seeking a deadline extension in the hope Ohio would be prepared to make the switch by either the 2004 primary or general election. Meeting the deadline became impossible because of delays, including concerns raised about the security of the electronic systems offered by the four companies selected by Blackwell. More.... (link to Morning Journal article).