MAHONING COUNTY Board of elections hopes for federal aid

The board is interested in buying additional touch-screen voting machines that would include headsets and Braille buttons to help visually impaired people vote.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Mahoning County Board of Elections officials are optimistic that the agency will receive some federal dollars to off-set the cost of its $2.9 million electronic voting system as well as to help pay for future upgrades.
When the board bought the new system, which was fully implemented during last month's election, it did so with no guarantee that it would be eligible for reimbursement under then-pending federal legislation to pay for electronic voting systems nationwide. The legislation, which provides $3.9 billion in federal money to upgrade elections equipment, has since been passed by Congress.
Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell told Mahoning election officials earlier this year that the county probably would not qualify for reimbursement of its initial purchase, but could be eligible for federal money for voter-education programs, training for poll workers and upgrades to the system.
"I'm not going to give up to get at least a portion of that reimbursement money," said Michael V. Sciortino, board director, who sent a letter recently to Blackwell enlisting his support in getting federal dollars for the Mahoning voting system.
Switching over
Most of the federal reimbursement dollars are targeted toward counties that are moving from a punch-card voting system, which was the source of much controversy during the 2000 presidential election, to electronic voting. Mahoning County switched this year from a system using paper ballots with results read by optical scanners to electronic voting.
The elections board is interested in purchasing an additional touch-screen voting machine for each of the county's 312 precincts that would include headsets and Braille buttons to help visually impaired people, Sciortino said. Those new machines would cost between $500,000 and $1 million. There were long lines at several polling places during last month's election and an additional machine at each polling place would alleviate any future delays, election officials say.
Sciortino wants federal dollars to pay for those new machines and is seeking Blackwell's support.
Mahoning became the first county in the state to go to an all-electronic voting system.
Officials from at least four county boards of elections in Ohio want to observe Mahoning County's new voting system during the Feb. 4 special election, Sciortino said.
Contract awarded
At today's meeting, the board awarded a contract to Youngstown Lithograph of Youngstown to print absentee ballots for the Feb. 4 election. The contract calls for the board to pay the company slightly more than $1 per absentee ballot. About 500 absentee ballots are expected to be cast during the February special election, which includes ballot issues for the Boardman, Poland and Jackson-Milton school districts, Sciortino said. The ballots will be printed on demand by the board, he said.
The board's staff will eventually print absentee ballots off the electronic voting machines as early as the May primary, Sciortino said.
Also today, the board approved a $1,580 contract with Barret Bros. of Springfield, Ohio, to provide precinct supply kits for the 79 precincts that will be open for voting during the February special election. The kits include books for voters to sign when they cast ballots, as well as instruction manuals and posters warning people about election fraud.
skolnick@vindy.com