4/23 Colorado Daily: County accepts voting system bid

[Doug Grinbergs <saule@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.coloradodaily.com/articles/2004/04/23/news/news02.txt
Richard Valenty
Colorado Daily
04/23/2004


The Board of Boulder County Commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday to accept a contract bid for a new voting system from vendor Hart InterCivic, but the ink isn't dry on the contract yet because it isn't signed.

The commissioners approved a contract bid price of $1,526,120, in part to purchase a Hart system called "BallotNow."

County voters will vote in 2004 by marking ovals on paper ballots with ink. The ballots will be "read" by scanners, and a digital image of the ballot will be stored in computer memory. After the precinct polling places close on Election Night, the votes will be tabulated using Hart software called "Tally."

Since the paper ballots will be tabulated electronically, some local citizens fear that the "machine" might not accurately record the intent of the voters.

Evan Ravitz of the group Citizens for Verifiable Voting (CVV) attended Wednesday's meeting and asked the commissioners to delay purchasing an electronic system and have employees and volunteers count the 2004 vote by hand instead.

The commissioners and county staff rejected the idea of possibly hand counting over 150,000 ballots as too time-consuming and impractical.

Ravitz says a Colorado law that requires recounts to be done on the same system as the original count could lead to faulty computer equipment repeatedly counting the vote incorrectly.

"This almost unique Colorado law violates the most basic principle of accounting," said Ravitz. "That is, you always cross-check your sums in at least two ways."

Wednesday's hearing included financial discussions. The commissioners were initially presented with a contract bid of over $1.7 million.

According to Tom Halicki, Boulder County election manager, the original contract included a $228,198 "contingency" sum, which Commissioner Ron Stewart objected to and had removed from the bid.

Hart would provide $1,365,270 worth of BallotNow software, hardware, custom programming and service.

According to Halicki, the figure is higher than originally anticipated because the commissioners wanted more scanners for faster results on Election Night.

"Our original request was for four scanners, but we doubled that to eight," said Halicki. "Each scanner costs about $55,000, along with $25,000 worth of software and three work stations to go along with each scanner."

Also, Halicki said Linda Salas, Boulder County Clerk, asked for a $45,000 printer-copier to allow the county to print its own ballots, instead of having the vendor print them, in future elections.

The Colorado Secretary of State's office is expected to provide $794,808 to defray some of the costs of the system, according to a county press release.

The commissioners voted to approve the contract bid, but in a unique twist, CVV member Neal McBurnett lobbied the commissioners to make the Hart contract available for citizens to view online before it is signed.

The document can be found at www.co.boulder.co.us/bocc. In the left margin, click on "View voting system contract; submit comment." The contract is over 100 pages long, and only written comments, due by Tuesday, April 27, will be accepted.

The commissioners are scheduled to make a final vote at an April 27 meeting.