Electronic voting system displayed

Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2002 | 9:09 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- As the election season begins, three companies are asking Secretary of State Dean Heller to certify their touch-screen voting systems so they might be used in Nevada.

Heller called the touch-screen system "the wave of the future," and he said it permits voters to make immediate changes if they have made a mistake in casting their ballots.

Clark County is already ahead of the curve, being the first in Nevada to start purchase of a touch screen voting system.

Hart InterCivic of Lafayett, Colo. showed off its system Monday.

Donna Cardinelli, assistant registrar of voters for Clark County, said it has purchased 200 machines from Sequoia Voting System, the first company to be certified by Heller. She said the Sequoia will accommodate bilingual voters and comply with federal standards for disabled people.

The Sequoia machines will be used in early voting in Clark County.

Cardinelli said she came to view the demonstration of Hart for the optical scanning ballots. At present, Clark County uses punch cards for mail-in ballots. In the future it may decide to switch to optical scanning.

While Clark County has moved ahead, many of the small counties will find these touch-screen voting units carry a hefty price.

The Hart unit cost runs $2,500 for each voting machine, $1,000 for a disabled voter's unit and $3,500 to run the machines in a polling place. And the software comes extra.

For instance in Douglas County that has an estimated 25,000 voters, the software would cost $50,000.

Congress is considering legislation to allocate money for the states to buy these new machines to avoid the confusion that reigned in the presidential election in Florida. Congress is encouraging state and local governments to move away from punch card systems.

Nine counties in Nevada use optical-scan systems. And seven use punch cards. Clark County is the only one using direct recording electronic voting machines

Global Election Systems of Texas will give a demonstration Jan. 29 and Nebraska's Election Systems and Software is scheduled to present its system on Feb. 7 in Carson City.

Heller did not say when he will make a decision to certify these machines for use in Nevada.