Officials want to blaze a paper trail

J. Craig Anderson and Cy Ryan

Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2005 | 9 a.m.

Election officials hope Clark County voters won't be left hanging like chads when it comes to the availability of "paper trail" voting machines.

A $2 million contract to buy another 604 high-tech machines, which let voters make selections via a touch screen and then verify results with a printout, is expected to come before the state Board of Examiners today.

The secretary of state's office is set to buy the machines at $3,137 each from Sequoia Voting Systems of Oakland, Calif. If the contract is approved, Clark County will receive 472 new machines while Washoe and rural counties will get 132 units.

However, Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said the contract won't provide enough paper trail machines to accommodate Southern Nevada's rapid influx of new voters.

"To address growth in the county by the 2008 elections, we figure we would need another 700 machines," Lomax said.

After subtracting the 472 he hopes to receive from the state's purchase, Lomax would still need about $1 million worth of equipment. He said that in addition to the cost of the voting machines themselves there are shipping costs and costs for card readers and supplemental equipment.

Dan Musgrove, the county's intergovernmental affairs director, said the county would have to foot the bill for those additional machines.

Lomax said he is planning to meet with the county manager and county commissioners to discuss how the new equipment could be financed.

The new machines the state is buying will be paid for by the federal government under the Help America Vote Act, but Nevada Chief Deputy Secretary of State Rene Parker said she doesn't expect the federal government to provide Nevada with any more money to buy additional machines.

For the 2004 elections, Clark County had 745 electronic voting machines with paper trails and about 2,200 other units, Lomax said. The county put at least one paper trail machine in each polling place.

Clark County had 329 polling locations in 2004. Lomax said he expects that number to increase to at least 350 in 2006, and as many as 375 in 2008.

In exchange for being the first state to adopt the paper trail machines, manufacturer Sequoia agreed to let Nevada buy them at a $1,000 discount per unit until 2006, Lomax said.

Although he wasn't sure exactly how many machines would be needed for the 2006 elections, Lomax said if the county wants to save money and be prepared for 2008, it would make sense to buy before the price goes up.

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

"They're definitely a step forward in technology," he said.

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

Cy Ryan can be reached at (775) 687-5032 or cy@lasvegassun.com.