New voting machines hit delay in Oregon

Supply issues may prevent Oregon from offering machines to disabled people in May, as required by law
March 20, 2006 / MATTHEW PREUSCH / The Oregonian
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1142825126230010.xml&coll=7

People with disabilities in Oregon probably won't get to use specially designed voting machines in the May primary as planned, putting the state in violation of sweeping federal reform law. A contract dispute with the supplier has delayed delivery of the voting machines, required under the 2002 Help America Vote Act. "We spent a year trying to put this together," said Gene Newton, a state election official coordinating changes spurred by the new law. "To hit this snag at the end was really unexpected."

At least 21 other states also missed the Jan. 1 deadline to offer the machines, according to electionline.org, a nonpartisan election database. The law requires states to have a machine in every polling place by this year to allow disabled people to vote independently and privately. Oregon, the only 100 percent vote-by-mail state, had planned to buy a minimum of two AutoMARK machines per county -- one to be placed in a county building and one mobile unit, with additional terminals in more populous areas.

Each machine is about the size of a large suitcase, with a touch screen and Braille key pad. Voters with disabilities would feed their paper ballots into the machine, then vote with the help of attached headphones, large print, or, for those with limited use of their arms or hands, a "sip/puff" tube. The state thought it had a deal to spend nearly $1 million on 100 terminals, but supplier Election Systems and Software of Omaha, Neb., asked to change liability, license and other provisions in its contract at the last minute, said Anne Martens, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Bill Bradbury's office.

The state has refused to make changes because it would then have to start the bidding process over, Martens said. Last month, Bradbury's office sent a letter to the company saying the state considered it in breach of contract. State and company officials plan to meet later this month to continue negotiations, said Amanda Brown, a spokeswoman for Election Systems and Software. The company could still supply machines in the future, and "we are hopeful we can do so soon," she said.

But in a recent letter to the U.S. Department of Justice, state Elections Division Director John Lindback said the state doesn't believe it can reach an agreement with Election Systems and Software and that it intends to sue the company to recoup extra costs incurred trying to comply with the voting act.

To provide alternatives for disabled voters and possibly pacify federal regulators, the state was talking with a Kentucky company to provide a phone voting system in 10 Oregon counties as a pilot project in the primary, but it now appears the pilot program won't meet requirements, election officials said.

Federal officials haven't announced how they plan to respond to the missed deadline.

However, even if Oregon ends up settling the contract with Election Systems and Software, some advocates said the AutoMARK as configured won't satisfy the law's requirement of private and independent voting.

For example, those without use of their hands would need an election worker to remove their marked paper ballot from the AutoMARK machine and put it into a separate tallying machine.

"The AutoMARK would have been a great solution for people with many types of disabilities, but not all," said John Kauffman, Multnomah County's elections director.

Nonetheless, advocates for people with disabilities said they worked closely with the state to choose the AutoMARK and are dismayed by the delay.

"We've been touting it to people, going around the state saying, 'Hey, this is coming, and it's going to be a great thing,' " said Julie Anderson, an attorney for the Oregon Advocacy Center and a member of a state committee working on voter accessibility issues. "It's a huge disappointment."

Matthew Preusch: 541-382-2006; preusch@bendbroadband.com