Unified voting system planned for state in ‘04

Monday, Nov. 3, 2003 | 9:30 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Although he previously said he wouldn't, Secretary of State Dean Heller now plans to spend $6 million to $8 million on new voting machines for Washoe and the rural counties for the 2004 election.

He said Friday that he hopes to have the computerized touch screens installed in the counties by March to eliminate the need to continue punch card voting and optical scan systems in Washoe and the rural counties.

Heller said he hopes to provide federal money to Clark County to buy additional voting machines to handle an increasing population. Clark County already has spent more than $16 million for touch-screen machines, Heller's chief deputy, Renee Parker, said.

Heller's change of mind is drawing praise from Carson City Clerk Alan Glover, who represents county clerks in many legislative matters. He said the counties want to see the new voting units now rather than later when Heller puts in a statewide voter registration system.

But Glover said some of the clerks are unhappy with Heller's plans to buy the same voting machines, rather than let the counties decide which company to choose to acquire the touch-screen units. Glover said the decision should be up to the local election officials.

Carson, Douglas, Storey, Elko and Pershing counties have asked for quotes on prices for Diebold voting machines.

Heller said he has not decided which brand to buy, but he wants the same machines statewide.

"I want every voter treated the same," he said. "With what we have been seeing in other states, I want a vote counted exactly the same in all corners of the state.

"I don't want to see different machines with different vendors with different margin of errors. If you have those issues out there, you always subject your state to potential litigation."

Clark County has Sequoia voting units. The competition boils down to Diebold and Sequoia for the $6 million to $8 million contract.

"There's been a lot of turmoil in the industry," Heller said.

He said Johns Hopkins University did a study on Diebold and "claimed they were not secure enough."

"Diebold has taken all the hits. Sequoia has not," said Heller, referring to questions about security of the machines to withstand tampering with the votes.

Before any machines are purchased, they must be certified as secure by Heller. The only touch-screens certified in the state now were by Sequoia, Heller said.

He said a Diebold system in Washoe County has been certified, but it is not a touch-screen unit.

Heller has already received $5 million from the federal government for improving the state's voting system and expects another $5.7 million before the end of the year.

"One of our concerns will be deliverable dates," Heller said, noting that he wants the machines in place by March 1 so they can be further tested and training can be conducted for county employees.

Heller initially planned to install a statewide voter registration system first with the federal grant and later buy the voting machines. He said the county clerks, however, did not want both projects being developed in an election year.

The Legislature allowed Heller to select voter machines and a voter registration system without going out to bid.

The federal government wanted the voter registration system installed by Jan. 1, 2004. but Heller delayed that, saying will be able to get a waiver.

The two dominant companies in Nevada that have voter registration systems are Votec in Clark County and Diebold in Washoe County. When those two companies sought the contract to develop a statewide voter registration system, the competition became "very contentious," Heller said.

There were allegations of favoritism and that the specifications for the voter registration system were specifically defined, Heller said. So he decided to cancel the information bidding and is now in the process of developing a formal request for proposals, or RFP.

He said that RFP is now being developed and would be submitted to the county clerks for their comments. After the clerks' input proposals would be sought.

Heller said he hopes to have the statewide voter registration system installed by 2005 in time for the 2006 election.