Whitley to adopt new voting machines

By Sean Bailey / Staff Writer

Whitley County will have 41 new voting machines for the next election — and most of the cost should be covered by the state and federal government.

Joe Harp from Harp Enterprises Inc., a Lexington company that sells voting machines, spoke to the Whitley Fiscal Court during its regular meeting on Tuesday about the new eScan voting machines.

At the last few fiscal court meetings citizens voiced their concerns over the county’s electronic voting machines. Much of the concern was the lack of a “paper-trail” that could be used to verify the electronic machines’ vote count. The new eScan machines utilize both electronic vote tallying and a paper ballot that can be used in the event of a contested or irregular election.

To use the new eScan machines a registered voter fills out a paper ballot. The voter then inserts the ballot into the voting machine. The eScan machines are similar to large fax machines — a voter slides the ballot into an opening and the machine tallies the vote. Unlike a fax machine keeps the ballot inside of a locked compartment. The machine will either tally a ballot or ejects the it if it isn’t filled out correctly — say someone accidently votes for both Barack Obama and John McCain.

Voters who make mistakes on their ballots have to fill out paperwork and the “spoiled” ballot is placed in a separate container from the tallied ballots. Each voter is allowed to “spoil” three ballots.

The actual vote tally is recorded electronically, Harp said, but the paper ballots remain secured in the machine in the event the tally is disputed. Harp said this type of system is called a Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) and will likely be mandated in the future by the federal government in an effort to avoid the “debacle” of the 2000 presidential election.

A bill has been proposed and adopted in congress requiring VVPAT systems, but Harp said it was not mandated because congress didn’t have enough time before the last election.

“Long story short, is that when you cast a ballot ... your ballot has been counted electronically,” Harp told the fiscal court. “But in the event that someone disputes those totals the board of election has the ability to go in and get those ballots out of the machines and recount them and not just trust the computer that it got the correct totals.”

Harp Enterprises won a bid that the county advertised for at the end of December for $184,500. Harp said if the county waited to bid the equipment Jan. 1 or later the county would have to pay an extra $900 per machine. In April, Whitley County received a $160,000 grant from the state to upgrade its election equipment. The remaining $24,500 will likely be made availble to the county through further state and federal grants.

Harp said that almost 60 counties in the state have purchased equipment like the eScan machine — and around 20 of those counties used the eScaners in November’s election.

Boyd County purchased 47 eScan machines before the November election to replace the county’s aging more than 25 -year-old voting equipment.

“I can tell you that this last election was one of the biggest in Boyd County,” Boyd County Clerk Debbie Jones said. “We had over 20,000 people vote and we normally have around 9,500 voters. It was overwhelming but the eScan machines handled it perfectly.”

Jones said she heard positive feedback from both election officials and the voting public at-large. Not only were the machines easy to use, Jones said, they are lighter less awkward to move.

“We had absolutely no problems with them,” Jones said.

Jones isn’t the only state official endorsing the machines, Harp said Secretary of State Trey Grayson endorsed the machines. Whitley County Clerk Kay Schwartz said she had no problems with the new machines.

Besides the eScan’s apparent ease of use and mobility, Harp told the Fiscal Court on Tuesday that the county would be able to print off extra ballots as needed.

“This system allows the county board of elections to email ballots overseas to the military,” Harp said. “It allows in the event that particular precincts might be running short of a particular kind of ballot. The county board of elections can generate ballots in an accountable fashion at their office on election day.”

The printed ballot would have to be transported by an official or sheriff’s deputy, Harp said, and the system assures that the county will “always know where” the ballots are.

The flexibility of the eScan system also allows different sized ballots for elections where more large amounts of people run for the same county seats.

“When economic times are tight more people tend to run for office, it’s a good job,” Harp said. “We had a county that had 26 people in the same party run for jailer ... if the ballot gets huge we can accommodate it.”

Ballots can be scanned on both sides, and can be expanded to be 17 inches long, Harp added.

Before fiscal court was in session, county magistrates and citizens got the chance to try out the machines. Magistrate Roger Wells said the machine was easy to use, but he had reservations about approving a machine without further public input.

“I voted on it, it’s a simple machine for me to vote on,” Wells said. “It’s a big decision for me to sit here and say I as first district magistrate can make this choice for the fiscal court to purchase these machines. There are 25,000 or so voters in the county and I’m wondering what’s on their minds tonight.”

After discussing the machines the court eventually voted unanimously to purchase the machines. Judge-Executive Pat White Jr. said they would save the county money in the long run and would also quell some of the citizen’s concerns over the lack of a paper trail.

“My line of thinking has always been that we are going to change to a system like this anyhow,” White said. “This is going to be compliant with everything we run into and I’d love to save the money.”

During Tuesday’s meeting the court also appointed Robbie Hamblin, Deputy Jailers Oscar Davenport and Wayne Perkins as assistant Solid Waste Coordinators. The three men work with Whitley County Detention Center inmates on road-side clean-up efforts throughout the county in conjunction with Solid Waste Coordinator Danny Moses.

Judge White said the men requested to be made assistants to Moses so that they have ticketing power. All to often, White said, the men will see people littering while they are with inmates cleaning up litter left by other people. White explained that the men won’t be allowed to pull people over, but if they feel safe they can follow the litters or take down their license plates and issue a littering ticket.

“They consider it insulting for them to be out working, trying to clean up the roads, and here comes somebody who throws a McDonalds bag right beside them,” White said. “I would consider it insulting too.”

The Whitley County Fiscal Court also:

• Reappointed Donnie Bunch for Commissioner of Cumberland Falls Highway Water District.

•Appointed airport board members Mike Siler and Lee Durham

• Awarded a bid for the Keswick Bridge Project to Anderson Contracting for its bid of $116,799.80. The bid was under the $125,000 grant money the county received for the project.

• Approved an agreement between Whitley County 911 services and the Kentucky State Police. 911 Supervisor Angie Matney said the agreement will allow Whitley County to “remote” its new 911 radio system off of the KSP’s London post radio system.

The 911 office will be moving to the Whitley-Williamsburg Airport when it is complete. Matney said the county’s current system is so outdated it won’t survive the move.

The new system is “state of the art” and many counties across the state are moving to the system, Matney said.