July 24, 2004

Tempers flare over county e- voting plan

Commission approves contract for iVotronics

BYKATIEWILSON
TIMESWESTVIRGINIAN

FAIRMONT — Tempers were running high in the Marion County Commission chambers Friday as Commissioners Jim Sago, Cody Starcher and Alan Parks voted to go into contract with Election Systems & Software to provide iVotronic voting machines for November’s general election.

Cries of “ I want my paper ballot” echoed through chambers as dissenters loudly expressed their disapproval after the commissioners voted.

The meeting was punctuated by bursts of raised voices, culminating in a loud argument between Parks and Vern Swisher, a member of the Marion County Democratic Executive Committee, who attended the meeting as a concerned citizen.

Swisher accused Parks of pushing through the iVotronic machines in an attempt to get President George W.

Bush re- elected.

“ It’s Republican bull*** t, and you know it Alan,” Swisher yelled.

Parks denied the charge and when Swisher persisted, the commissioner told him to go to hell, then walked away.

Afterwards, Swisher angrily announced the commission wasn’t speaking for the people of Marion County.

Ray Musgrove and Chester Kelley, representatives of Randy Proctor’s write- in campaign for the office of sheriff, were in attendance to voice their concerns about the electronic- voting machines. Proctor could not attend the meeting, but said later that as a write- in candidate he has an interest in the machines. If people don’t know how to use the machines, they won’t know how to write in his name in the sheriff’s race.

Musgrove and Kelley expressed their concern that there wouldn’t be enough time to educate voters on how to use the machines.

“ If I want to win, I have a need to get as many people accustomed to using the machines as possible,” Proctor said Friday afternoon.

“ The secretary of state has recommended this ( voter- verified system), which will be available for the next election.

There’s no need to rush into this and buy another pig in a poke,” Swisher said.

Recently, Joe Manchin III, the state’s current secretary of state, said that he would prefer the state use voter- verified evoting systems. With this system, the machine prints out the voter’s ballot, the voter checks that their entries are correct, and then submits the vote.

Cindy Smith, team leader of the elections division of the secretary of state’s office, said that Manchin would prefer a voter- verified system when it is available. Currently, no voterverified systems have been certified by the state. The state only requires that the votes be auditable. The exact voting method is up to the counties.

“ You cannot put a price on democracy, not of time or money,” Swisher said. “ I want my paper ballot.”

Gary L. Greenhalgh, vice president of sales for ES& S, was in attendance to field questions from the commissioners.

“ This system has the best audit trail ever designed,” he said.

Greenhalgh stated that the Votronic and iVotronic machines have counted millions of ballots since 1995. The machines provide not one, but three independent records of each ballot, which are printed after the polls close.

The machines are tested with the actual ballot no less than five days before the election.

The machines are then kept in a secure location until election day.

“ I can only speak to the integrity of this product,” Greenhalgh said. “ I know that it works, and the voters can vote on it with complete reliability.”

The starting cost of the rental package will be $ 101,750. Alittle less than half of that cost — $ 50,000 — will go toward the purchase of the machines if they work well in the election. The contract includes the rental of 150 machines, two for each of Marion County’s 75 voting precincts. ES& S is throwing in an additional 20 machines free of charge. The cost of the contract also covers a voter- education campaign. For a total of 20 days between now and November’s election, ES& S employees will go to meetings, shopping centers and senior centers throughout Marion County to show people how to use the machines.

ES& S will also train all poll workers.

The company will begin working with County Clerk Janice Cosco’s office to determine if even more machines will be needed. Sago said that he roughly calculated the cost of each machine to be $ 500.