TECHNOLOGY Boards ponder fate of voting machines

Some other countries are moving faster than the U.S. with electronic voting.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Outdated machines that are a testament to the way Americans cast ballots before the 2000 election are collecting dust and waiting for a new life, possibly in an emerging Third World democracy or even a union contract vote.
Election boards around the country are trying to sell, recycle or dispose of countless voting machines rendered obsolete by a new federal law requiring upgrades.
"There is not a secondary market for used equipment at this point," said Keith Cunningham, director of the Allen County elections board in northwest Ohio and immediate past president of the Ohio Association of Election Officials.
The Allen County voting machines, bought in 1995 for $500,000, are collecting dust in a county-owned building because they didn't meet handicapped accessibility requirements.
Since the equipment was 10 years old, the county decided to replace the equipment rather than retrofit it to meet federal requirements, Cunningham said.
The scene is similar in many voting jurisdictions across the country where outdated punch-card and lever-type voting machines predate the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which passed after the tumultuous 2000 election highlighted voting problems.
"Everywhere that they had punch cards and lever machines, they are getting rid of them," said Richard Smolka, who writes the Election Administration Reports newsletter in Washington, D.C., for election officials nationwide.
Explanation
The mounting pile of outdated machines has led to some creative thinking on what to do with the equipment. Smolka has heard of election boards offering old machines to schools for student government elections, but the idea has instructional limits in the classroom because the machines are no longer in use.
Cunningham has toyed with the idea of leasing obsolete equipment for elections involving unions or community groups. He jokes that the best scenario might be a Third World country that needs a quick infusion of voting machines.
"I'd like to think we could sell it to emerging democracies," he said.
In Muncie, Ind., Delaware County Clerk Karen D. Wenger has discussed the possibility of sending old voting machines to an African country. Nothing has been finalized, her office said Friday.
In Houston, Doug Lewis, executive director of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Election Center, jokes that the old machines have a future as boat anchors.
"They have very little value," he said. One idea he has heard for standup voting consoles: Have police use them as roadside incident stations where officers can write accident reports.
Lewis is skeptical that the machines will have a future overseas because some less-developed countries are moving faster than the United States in terms of electronic voting.
The machines, particularly aging punch-card and lever-type equipment, may not be worth much, even if there was a seller's market.
OK for other states
But in Lake County, located in Cleveland's northeast suburbs, 549 electronic voting machines purchased for $3 million in 1999 are compatible with current laws in several states but were rendered obsolete by an Ohio law requiring a paper audit that allows a voter to see a printout of his vote.
The county, which still owes $850,000 on the purchase, paid about $5,200 for each unit.
Janet Clair, director of the Lake County elections board, said she has gotten some serious inquiries about the unused equipment, which she believes is compliant with laws in Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, Nevada and Utah.
In Columbus, Franklin County still owes about $800,000 on 2,900 touch-pad machines it bought in 1992 but must replace. A Kentucky company bought some of the internal electronic components of the old machines and the county is grinding up the fiberglass cases and trashing them, elections director Matt Damschroder said.