News

New voting machines sit unused

May 12, 2004

INDIANAPOLIS-According to a story in the Indianapolis Star, the 615 unused touchscreen voting kiosks that are collecting dust in an Eastside warehouse might have alleviated the ballot problems some precincts faced in the May 4 primary elections.

Had the touchscreen kiosks been at every polling station when at least 20 ran out of paper ballots, "They would have solved our ballot problems," Marion County Clerk Doris Anne Sadler said.

The kiosks, delivered last fall by Election Systems & Software were supposed to be in place for the May 4 primary. But the kiosks never left the Election Service Center because ES&amp's still hasn't obtained state certification for the updated version of a computer program that helps run the kiosks.

Now she and other Marion County Election Board members question whether ES&amp's will be able to certify the software in time for the Nov. 2 general election.

ES&amp's spokesman Steve Mastorakos said the company would meet the Indiana Election Commission's Oct. 1 certification deadline.

An independent testing company, Wyle Laboratories, is running tests on the latest version of ES&S' touch-screen software in Huntsville, Ala. Once that is completed, a report will be submitted to the state Election Commission, so it can certify the reliability and security of the software.

"We're going to do everything we can to have it certified as soon as possible," Mastorakos said.

Most voters cast paper ballots, which are read by 937 optical scanners. The touch-screen kiosks will supplement that system and help the county meet a spring 2006 federal deadline to provide easily accessible equipment for voters with disabilities. They store an unlimited number of ballots electronically.

Ed Treacy, chairman of the Marion County Democratic Party, agreed that touch-screen machines could have served as a backup last week. But he questioned why ballots-mostly Republican-ran out in the first place.

"The problem is there is such a basic lack of understanding of how an election is put on," he said. "(Sadler) does not even have an Election Day strategy to think of backup programs in case things go wrong."