ELECTION 2004 Vote tallies scrutinized

Committee members agree that commissioners failed to communicate.
MERCER, Pa. -- Members of the Independent Election Committee still aren't satisfied that no election rights laws were broken when machine malfunctions in the Nov. 2 general election left many voters unable to vote or failed to record their votes.
District Attorney James Epstein had said after the election that the problems that caused machine failure in 12 county precincts did not result from intentional acts.
But the committee still wants to meet with Epstein, the sheriff and county solicitors to discuss the legalities.
They are also concerned about 4,057 or 7 percent of presidential votes lost in an "undervote," which is the difference between the number of people who cast ballots and those who voted in the presidential race.
Mercer undervote high
An analysis done by a local college professor showed that while there is normally an undervote of about 2 percent in the presidential race nationwide, there was a 7 percent undervote in Mercer County.
Percentages were also higher than expected in other counties using the UniLect touch-screen machines, which Mercer County bought several years ago.
The committee met Thursday at the courthouse and agreed they will be ready with recommendations by their Feb. 1 deadline.
Work hampered
However, member Kathleen Paul said the work of the committee cannot be complete because it does not have the power to subpoena witnesses or collect testimony under oath. She said the committee is hampered by this lack of legal power and cannot really investigate the election.
Citing the many contradictions in information given to the committee, she said, "We don't know who's lying to us. That's why we can't place blame.
"The Board of Election will say [they] looked into it, but they really didn't look into it at the depth of an investigation."
Agreements made
Members said they will continue to work on drafting a preliminary report but they already agree on several things:
UThe position of election director should be full time and the director's work should be checked by someone else so the integrity of the election never again depends on one person. Election Director Jim Bennington had prepared the ballot for the November election, but failed to prepare a manual test that would have caught the problem.
UThe failure of the computer program to catch a misplaced numeral 1 that rendered voting machines in Fourth Congressional District precincts inoperative is the manufacturer's fault and cannot be blamed on Bennington. They said such a major system failure should not be possible because of such a simple error. They may recommend suing UniLect or insisting the company provides free modifications to correct this and to make the voting machines more "consumer friendly."
UThat poor communication among county commissioners, who form the county election board, contributed to election problems. They especially faulted Commissioner Brian Beader, the commissioners' liaison to the elections office, for his failure to relay communications from Bennington to the other two commissioners. They also criticized Beader and Commissioner Olivia Lazor for not notifying Commissioner Michele Brooks about the election problems until 9 a.m. Election Day, although they both became aware of them more than an hour earlier.
UThat the elections office needs better communication with precincts. Several poll workers reported being unable to notify the courthouse of problems because when they called, the phones would just ring. Others, however, reported they got through quickly. Poor training of poll workers was also cited as a problem. The Rev. Donald Wilson, county Republican chairman, noted that working at the polls is a "thankless job" and that some poll workers "halfheartedly attend their training sessions," possibly because they are paid only $5 to attend the training.
UAn operational plan and a crisis plan should be in place for each election and enough paper ballots should be available for several hours of voting in case of machine problems. The committee will next meet at 3:30 p.m. Jan. 11. They plan to release the final report and recommendations Jan. 31.