February 22, 2006

FUNDING TO BE SOUGHT FOR TOUCH-SCREEN VOTING DEVICES

"In slightly more than 100 days, the June 6 primary election will happen. Butte County Clerk-Recorder Candace Grubbs said the county will be ready, but it won't be any kind of easy.

"The amount of work to go into this will be horrendous," said Grubbs on Tuesday in her Oroville office.

Just a week earlier, she told the Butte County Board of Supervisors preparations for the coming election were so bogged down that it was possible the whole thing would have to be conducted as a by-mail exercise.

Butte County, like the rest of the counties in the state, is under a federal mandate to have at least one voting machine in each precinct designed to be used by disabled individuals. The device must allow the disabled person to vote unassisted and in secrecy.

The problem was California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson has been tardy in certifying machines to be used for the process.

Speaking to the supervisors, Grubbs said, if the machines were not certified quickly, the only option open to the county would be to get legislative approval to hold an all mail-in election for the primary.

Supervisors voted unanimously to urge the Legislature to approve a measure that would allow for a one-time, mail-in election.

However, on Friday McPherson gave his official nod for the use of the Diebold touch-screen voting machines that Grubbs wanted to use for the primary.

Next Tuesday, Grubbs will again go before the supervisors to get permission to spend roughly $3 million to purchase 600 of the machines, replacing all of the existing county voting machines."

You can find the article here.

Posted by Randy Riddle at February 22, 2006 12:28 PM