Article: Four Possible Options for Pinellas County for Compliance with FL's New Paper Ballot Legislation

Other reasons for reconsideration of old Sequoia DREs for voters with disabilities are as follows: Sequoia DREs in Pinellas County have had notorious difficulties with touchscreens flipping votes and needing constant recalibration. One candidate couldn't vote for himself. One pollworker remarked recently, "These aren't touchscreens, they are POUND screens!!" Another wrote that the voting machines were doing "voodoo things" all day. The DREs often turned up with more votes than voters or vice versa, and the September 2006 Pinellas primary was plagued with more than 150 instances of all kinds of touchscreen difficulties according to pollworkers. A virtual smorgasbord of problems has arisen, yet we're told time and again by Supervisor Clark and her office that they've performed splendidly. Despite all these problems, recent public records requests indicate that Supervisor Clark is leaning toward advising our County Commissioners to purchase Sequoia optical scan equipment yet again. Even with non-existent ADA options for the future and only disgraced DRE options available now. Ms. Clark has also been advising Pinellas that ADA equipment is "not available yet." While this is true for Sequoia, it is a misleading statement because it certainly IS available right now with ES&S or Diebold/Premier.

8. Contract Terms: All DRE counties have been unfairly put in a box by the State's requirement they make a quick decision to make it their purchasing agent for new equipment and to dispose of their now worthless DREs when the State could offer almost no details of the terms of those purchases counties will eventually have to pay for– effectively forcing counties to buy a pig in a poke. At least one of the systems on display is not yet certified. These are all uncharted waters and must be traveled only with great care for election integrity and prudent use of public funds. Floridians have taken a beating of late in both departments. Once vendors are selected, very close attention must be paid to contract terms to ensure counties are not left holding the bag should these systems fail like the last round has done. Both the vendors and the State should be held financially liable for equipment that turns out to be substandard.

In conclusion, this critically important decision is one that we will have to live with for a very long time. It will affect elections for years to come. Careful consideration must be given to every aspect of this transition-- not just the price tag, though that is certainly important-- and not the least of which is making sure the equipment vendors are contractually responsible for the quality and performance of the systems they sell. After all, most of these are the exact same vendors who sold us faulty equipment not very long ago. It is nearly unbelievable that the Sequoia DRE voting systems this county spent $15 million taxpayer dollars on just six short years ago must now be scrapped because they were never up to the job.

Ironically, Jeb Bush's Special Task Force Report in 2001 recommended.... you guessed it, paper ballots optically scanned in the precincts as the most accurate and cost-effective means of running elections. Fifty-two counties in Florida took that good advice. Pinellas County and all 14 of the other all-DRE counties need to make the right choice this time, and spend voters' tax dollars wisely. That's why we need voters' voices guiding those choices.

After all, elections belong to We, the people.

Pamela Haengel, President
Voting Integrity Alliance of Tampa Bay
Co-Founder & VP, Florida Voters Coalition
www.VIATampaBay.org

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