Panel to pick voting machines

MERCER, Pa. -- A decision is nearing on what type of voting machines Mercer County residents will use beginning with the May 2006 primary election.
County commissioners said this week that a committee has been researching voting machines. Now vendors will be invited in so machines can be tried out to determine which will work best here.
The committee consists of Dr. Thomas Rookey, director of Elections and Registration; Patty Neapolitan, who works in the elections office; Keith Jenkins of the county's MIS department; Ann Marie Spiardi, executive director of the Mercer County Agency on Aging; and Maurice Keaveny, jury commissioner and former director of the county elections office. In addition, Vivian LaCamera and Mike Nichol are representing the disabled on the committee.
The federal Help America Vote Act requires the county to buy a system by January. But the state has certified only one system, and the county doesn't know which other machines will be approved for use. The Unilect touch-screen system that the county bought several years ago has been decertified and can't be used for voting in Pennsylvania.
Commissioners will receive some $900,000 to buy a new system but they are seeking reimbursement for the decertified machines that were bought with a bond issue because they had been promised reimbursement from the state.