Tuesday, May 3, 2005 | 9:30 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- Republican Secretary of State Dean Heller tangled with two GOP senators from Las Vegas on Monday over whether the state should spend $15 million to buy new voting machines with paper trails for Clark County.
At times, Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, had to call for order during the Senate Finance Committee meeting as Heller and Sen. Bob Beers and Sen. Barbara Cegavske kept interrupting each other during the debate.
Using federal funds, Heller purchased voting machines with paper trails for the other 16 counties for the last election and intended to have the machines in Clark County retrofitted with printers for the next election.
But Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. said it would cost more to retrofit the Clark County machines with printers than to buy new machines. Senate Bill 501 provides $15 million to buy 4,400 new machines that include the printers.
Beers told Heller the voting machines in Clark County already comply with the federal law without the printers.
Heller shot back, "That is a very irresponsible position" because, he said, voters have the right to have a verified paper trail of whom they voted for.
He said recounts can't be conducted right now because not all of the machines have a paper trail.
Beers said the money Heller is spending on the new machines amounts to $15 per eligible voter. That's eating up money that could be better spent on "large, pressing needs for everyday citizens," Beers complained.
Beers added that he has never heard a complaint in Clark County from a voter over the lack of the printers.
But Larry Lomax, registrar of voters for Clark County, said he had about 100 complaints from voters about not having machines with paper trails.
Beers also suggested Heller "had blown" the federal funds. But Heller challenged him to specify where the money had been "blown." Beers did not reply.
Cegavske said voters were told that the results could be verified in the present machines. She said "My concern is we're taking taxpayer dollars and throwing those machines away."
She said she felt "comfortable with them." She asked if there were any problems with the present machines "not working" and added, "We've been told for years they are good."
Heller said the machines with printers "assure accuracy." He said it "was a small price to pay to raise confidence (of the voters) and reliability."
Dan Musgrove, lobbyist for Clark County, said Clark County voters should not be treated differently from the voters in the rest of the state who get to use machines that do include paper print-outs of every vote.
Lomax said there was one unit with the paper trail at each Clark County polling place and individuals had the right to cast their ballots on them.
Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, questioned whether there could be two of the machines at every voting place in the next election.
"I hate to think of throwing them (the present machines) away when they said they were safe."
Heller noted a bill in Congress to require all states to have paper trail voting machines.
Raggio said that in the past counties have bought their own machines. But that changed during the last go round when the federal money was available. He suggested the bill might be changed to allow the purchase for Clark County when federal money becomes available.
Heller said he would talk with Nevada's delegation so that if Congress passed a voting machine bill Nevada would be reimbursed for the money it spent.
The committee did not take action on the bill.
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