Used voting machines might solve election problem

J. Craig Anderson

Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2005 | 8:15 a.m.

For sale: 3,000 high-tech voting machines. Slightly used. $4.6 million OBO.

Clark County election officials say they have found a way to purchase enough "paper trail" voting machines to furnish the entire county through 2010 at an affordable price.

The deal would involve buying 3,000 of the devices from Sequoia Voting Systems Inc., but only after they are used in Cook County, Ill., for its March 2006 elections.

County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said buying the once-used machines would allow Clark County to replace all of its older equipment for about half the cost.

The Illinois county, home to Chicago, ordered special large-screen voting machines from Sequoia, but they won't be ready by March, Lomax said.

Under the deal, Cook County will use the standard machines once and then transfer them to Clark County, where they will still be guaranteed under the original warranty. The machines will be in Nevada in time for next year's elections.

Paper trail machines permit voters to make selections via a touch screen and then verify results with a printout, thus reducing the possibility for error.

"That makes our life unbelievably easier in just all sorts of ways," Lomax said.

State officials recently purchased enough machines for Nevada's other counties using federal funds from the Help America Vote Act, but there was not enough money for a full upgrade in Clark County.

Chief Deputy Secretary of State Rene Parker has said she does not expect the federal government to provide Nevada with any additional money to buy more machines.

Sequoia, though, has agreed to a deeply discounted price of $1,681 per machine, compared with Nevada's already contractually reduced price of $3,137 per unit, Lomax said.

Lomax plans to submit a contract for County Commission approval Dec. 20 that would include purchase of 3,283 machines -- 283 new and 3,000 used.

The deal would require $4.6 million from the county's capital projects fund. The Elections Department already has $1.3 million budgeted to purchase the 283 new machines.

Along with the 745 touch-screen voting machines that the county already possesses, Lomax said the deal would bring the total to about 4,500 units -- enough to replace all of the paperless machines and accommodate anticipated growth through 2010.

Lomax said the new machines also would eliminate the need for 500 polling workers, saving the county $60,000 per election.

For the 2004 elections, the county put at least one paper trail machine in each of its 329 polling locations. Lomax said he expects to have at least 350 polling places in 2006, and as many as 375 in 2008.

In addition to printed verification of selections, the machines have other advantages such as bilingual support for Spanish speakers and audio capabilities for the blind, he said.

J. Craig Anderson can be reached at 259-2320 or at craig@lasvegassun.com.