toledoblade.com --

COLUMBUS - Just four of 31 Ohio counties eligible to immediately replace their punch-card ballots and lever machines with electronic voting equipment will move ahead.

That's a far cry from Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell's original goal of deploying modern machines in all 88 counties by the time the first presidential ballot is cast Nov. 2.

"I'm not disappointed in the counties for making that decision, but I am disappointed that counties were placed in that position," said state Sen. Randy Gardner (R., Bowling Green). "For a county to make a decision to move forward, knowing almost certainly that it would have to retrofit newly purchased machines in the future, is a tough call."

Putnam was the only northwestern county to vote to move ahead with the purchase of nearly $353,000 in touch-screen machines, but its board of elections is expected to reverse that decision today.

"We don't have enough time to get everything ready," said Carla Tooman, deputy elections director. "The federal government still has to do testing on [the machines], and then the state has to test them."

Yesterday marked the deadline for the 31 counties singled out under a state law enacted last month to decide whether to proceed now or wait until next year or early 2006.

By May 2006, every county must be equipped with voting machines employing a paper printout system allowing voters to re-check their votes and serving as a recount backup. No such system has yet been certified in Ohio.

Hardin, Lorain, Mercer, and Trumbull, the four counties moving ahead now, will have to retrofit their new machines. Ohio has received about $128 million in federal funds for the purchase and deployment of equipment.

Of the four counties moving forward, all but Hardin have relied on punch-card ballots like those challenged in Florida following the 2000 presidential election. Hardin, like Lucas County, had used lever machines.

The Lucas County Board of Elections tied 2-2. Republicans wanted to move ahead now with the purchase of nearly 1,400 Diebold touch-screen machines. Democrats preferred to wait. Mr. Blackwell chose not to break the tie last week.

"A tie vote was not a reaffirmation of a decision to more forward," said Blackwell spokesman Carlo LoParo. "That, in addition to the ongoing problems experienced with the Lucas County election administration, indicated introduction of new voting devices would not be prudent at this time."

The deadlock means Lucas will spend some $347,000 to lease optical scan machines, which use paper ballots read electronically, to get through the general election.

Mr. Gardner said nothing in the law prevented Mr. Blackwell from breaking the tie. The law does prohibit him from compelling a county to cast a reaffirmation vote.

"That section was written with Lucas County in mind," he said.

State Sen. Teresa Fedor (D., Toledo), a strong proponent of a "voter-verified paper audit trail," said counties had more information this time on which to base their decisions.

"I do believe [the majority of counties] made the best choice," she said. "Who can be against verified voting?"

Contact Jim Provance at:
jprovance@theblade.com
or 614-221-0496.

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