LAWRENCE COUNTY Commissioners mull electronic voting system

It will cost $1.1 million to buy touch-screen voting machines.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Lawrence County commissioners have about a week to decide whether residents will vote electronically in the fall.
Commissioner Roger DeCarbo Sr. said Tuesday he wants to implement touch-screen voting for the November general election to avoid problems the county had in the spring.
Election officials worked until 4 a.m. the day after the polls closed tallying votes after a machine malfunctioned and did not count the number of Democratic voters in 29 voting districts.
A second glitch occurred when officials tried to merge the results from ripped and torn ballots with results from other ballots.
The county uses an optical scanner system to tabulate its paper ballots. It was purchased in 1985.
"The night of the election was absolutely ludicrous," DeCarbo said. "We've got machines that can't calculate."
Cost
County officials say a touch-screen voting system would cost $1.1 million.
DeCarbo contends it would pay for itself in less than five years because the county wouldn't have paper ballots or labor costs.
Commissioners Brian Burick and Ed Fosnaught said they aren't sure if the county can afford to have new voting machines in place by November.
Fosnaught suggested they do a cost analysis.
Commissioners still aren't sure whether the county should pay for the voting system all at once or finance it, Burick said.
Burick added that they also want to find out if Lawrence County is eligible for federal funding made available to upgrade voting systems after the last presidential election.
He said it is unlikely they will know about federal funding anytime soon.
The county must inform the company that supplies the touch-screen voting machines by the end of June if the county intends to implement the new voting system for the general election.