MAHONING COUNTY Voting system upgrades are model

Expect long lines with new voting machines, a Mahoning elections official said.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- With a November 2004 deadline to implement an electronic voting system hanging over their heads, election officials from eight Ohio counties learned all they could from Mahoning and Lake -- two counties that already have the systems in place.
"We had the luxury of taking some time and working through the process," said Mark Munroe, Mahoning elections board chairman, who explained that the county took four years before changing from a paper ballot system to an electronic one in 2002. "But as we press toward 2004, there's not a lot of time left for" other counties.
Upgrades required
Congress passed legislation requiring counties to upgrade their voting systems by November 2004 because of the controversy surrounding the punch card system during the 2000 presidential election.
There is a provision to seek an extension to January 2006. Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell would have to ask for the extension, something he has not done.
Several of those at Tuesday's conference want Blackwell to seek the extension, saying to implement a new system during a presidential election year will be a huge problem.
During Tuesday's conference, county election board officials from throughout the state -- as close as Columbiana and Cuyahoga, and as far away as Franklin and Montgomery -- peppered their contemporaries from Mahoning and Lake about the cost of their electronic systems, how the transition to electronic voting went, the training process, and how to get voters familiar and comfortable with the new voting method.
Michael Sciortino, Mahoning's election board director, warned those at the conference that even if the transition to an electronic voting system is smooth, the lines at the polling places initially will be long. When Mahoning went to an all-electronic system in November 2002, many polling places reported long waits for voters.
"They're there for the first time voting on new machines," Sciortino said. "People are going to take their time. You're always going to have lines."
Mahoning and Lake counties paid for the voting systems themselves -- $2.9 million and $3 million, respectively. The federal Help America Vote Act will provide more than $150 million to Ohio's 88 counties to change their voting systems, with those moving from punch card systems getting preferential treatment.
skolnick@vindy.com