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July 18, 2008

Essex County gets new voting machines

By LOHR McKINSTRY

ELIZABETHTOWN -- Essex County received 22 new electronic voting machines this week, but where to keep them may be a problem.

The county intended to store the machines in the modular jail that was emptied out after the new County Jail in Lewis opened late last year.

But a letter from the State Board of Elections cautioned counties about storing voting machines in a secure place, so the modular jail will have to be protected.

County Democratic Election Commissioner David Mace said it will cost about $1,500 to replace locks on the old modular jail, but the state may reimburse the county.

The next step is to train election personnel on the new machines, County Republican Election Commissioner Lewis Sanders said.

"Once we get these new machines we'll have to certify them (workers)," Sanders said.

The two deputy commissioners will help with the training, he said, and part-time help will be used to enter new voter registrations in the database.

They also have to hire two part-time drivers, a Republican and a Democrat, to transport the machines to poll sites for the September primary, Mace said.

"With respect to the new machines they have to be trucked to and from the poll sites, and we have to pay people to do that."

That will cost about $3,600, he said, plus another $6,000 for the part-time clerks.

Two professional drivers, a Highway Department worker and a United Parcel Service driver, will be hired for the transportation, Mace said.

"If we don't do this we might as well not have the machines, as we'd be in violation of the court order."

The state is under a federal court order to switch to electronic voting machines and abandon the mechanical lever-type machines that have been in use, in some instances, since the 1930s.

About $5,600 that's not in the County Board of Elections budget will be taken from the county contingency account.

When Sanders and Mace briefed the County Board of Supervisors on the new machines, it was not without a squabble over who authorized what.

Mace complained that Sanders signed Mace's name on a county form without his permission.

Sanders said he simply put Mace's name on a resolution request because Mace wasn't available to sign it.

Mace asked that all resolutions and bills brought by the Board of Elections to the Board of Supervisors be signed by both commissioners.

Clerk of the board Deborah Palmer said she'd do that.

"From now on unless resolutions have both signatures they will not be put on the floor."

Sanders said Mace has also done things without his approval.

"Mr. Mace has ordered a bunch of furniture for the modular out there without my approval," Sanders said.

Mace denied that but said he did order furniture for training election personnel.

"Those are the tables I ordered plus chairs. We can do our training (in the modular), for which we need tables and chairs."

"I don't have a problem with the furniture," Sanders said, but would have wanted to be consulted.

Morency urged Sanders and Mace to work out their differences before speaking to the Board of Supervisors.

"I think the two of you ought to kiss and make up," Morency said. "You should be able to talk in your office instead of on the floor (at a supervisors meeting)."

lmckinstry@pressrepublican.com

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