Editorial: Please, no voting fiasco

Monday, Dec. 1, 2003 | 9 a.m.

The September primaries may seem like a long way off -- unless you are a county clerk or election official in Nevada. These people are getting very nervous about their readiness for the primaries. Secretary of State Dean Heller is late in deciding on whether counties should continue purchasing the voting machines of their choice, or whether there should be uniformity throughout the state. If there's to be uniformity, which Heller has said is his wish, he also needs to decide which machines will be used -- those manufactured by Sequoia (which are used in Clark County) or Diebold.

In an urgent letter to Heller, Carson City Clerk Alan Glover wrote that because people must be trained and the software and hardware all delivered and tested, "time is paramount." Glover, president of the state association of clerks and elected officials, told Heller, "We cannot stress to you, in strong enough terms, the importance of communicating and working with the local election officials."

We vote with Glover. Heller should make his decisions quickly. We don't need the possibility of an elections fiasco hanging over us.