COLUMBUS - After weeks of delays, a panel controlling the state's purse strings yesterday uncorked the flow of money to immediately carry Lucas and 30 other Ohio counties from punch-card ballots and lever machines into the electronic voting era.
Most of the federal funds are expected to go to Canton-based Diebold Election Systems, despite the fact that its next generation of touch-screen machines was decertified last week by California.
That model had yet to win federal or California certification and is not the version slated for use in Ohio.
Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell is looking for direction within two weeks from the 31 counties as to whether they intend to move forward in time for the Nov. 2 presidential election.
The Ohio Controlling Board released $38 million for the task, even though a bill spelling out how the money should be spent has yet to pass the House. County boards of election are also supposed to have 30 days beyond the law's effective date to make a final decision.
"[Counties] have to decide whether they're going to order [paper] ballots for the 2004 general election," said David Kennedy, Mr. Blackwell's director of legislative affairs. "Once they do that, they've passed the point of no return and have to move forward."In addition to Lucas, northwest Ohio's Henry, Williams, Paulding, and Huron are among the counties authorized to move ahead this year.
"There was some question really whether counties had a choice to move forward or not …," said Sen. Bill Harris (R., Ashland). "They don't have hardly as much time as they had before, but absolutely the counties that want to choose to go forward can, and those that don't want to don't have to."
The legislator-dominated controlling board kept $128 million in federal funds requested by Mr. Blackwell bottled up for more than a month while a special legislative committee examined security concerns associated with computerized voting.
The committee recommended, and the Senate agreed, that touch-screen machines should have a paper-printout system allowing voters to verify that their votes were accurately recorded. The printout would also serve as a backup for recounts.
The three vendors approved to sell machines in Ohio have not perfected such a system, and only one manufacturer in the country has received federal certification for one.
The 31 counties authorized to proceed immediately may purchase the machines without the paper system with the understanding the state will pay to retrofit them by no later than the primary election of 2006.
The controlling board yesterday released $27.3 million for the purchase and installation of the machines, as well as $5.9 million for administrative costs and further security testing.
Another $5 million, to be divided evenly between counties and Mr. Blackwell's office, will go toward voter education and poll-worker training. Mr. Blackwell had come under fire for requesting a $15 million program, including an advertising campaign that would have prominently featured himself.
Another $79.2 million would be appropriated in 2005 under the Senate-passed bill to update the rest of Ohio's 88 counties.
Contact Jim Provance at:
jprovance@theblade.com
or 614-221-0496.
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