San Benito County will soon be replacing the antiquated voting
system it’s been using since 1989 with a new, hi-tech system paid
for by the state.
The county will receive more than $500,000 in funding for
touch-screen voting equipment thanks to the Help America Vote Act
of 2002 and a separate 2002 voting modernization bond, and will
replace its outdated system by the state deadline of Jan. 1,
2006.
Hollister – San Benito County will soon be replacing the antiquated voting system it’s been using since 1989 with a new, hi-tech system paid for by the state.
The county will receive more than $500,000 in funding for touch-screen voting equipment thanks to the Help America Vote Act of 2002 and a separate 2002 voting modernization bond, and will replace its outdated system by the state deadline of Jan. 1, 2006.
“I’m hoping it will be a zero cost to the county due to the funding mechanisms that are available,” Head Elections Official John Hodges told the board of supervisors last week.
Hodges and his staff are considering a voting system that uses a touch-screen and provides directions in several different languages, including Spanish. The system is already being used in Santa Clara and Monterey Counties, and will likely be purchased by Santa Cruz County as well, according to Hodges.
Currently, San Benito County uses a punch-card system, which the state will consider obsolete as of December 2005.
“Remember Florida (in the 2000 presidential election) where everyone voted with punch cards? We’re not going to be like Florida any more,” said Voting System Consultant Mike Hodges.
Another problem the new voting system could help alleviate is the lack of signage and translations for Spanish-speaking voters identified during the county’s election in March 2004. Following that election, the Department of Justice filed a suit against San Benito County for HAVA violations for not providing enough support for Spanish speaking voters. While the DOJ found San Benito County had made some improvements in the November 2004 election, the new voting system could help even more.
“What they (the DOJ) were looking at was just making sure everyone is getting the same voting experience,” Mike Hodges said.
The new systems should ensure this happens, he said, as they’ll be accessible to speakers of several different languages, handicapped people, or anyone else who may have had trouble with the old system. The new touch-screen booths will ask voters to select a language and will then call up a ballot in that language. Sequoia Pacific’s AVC Edge, the only touch-screen voting product currently available that will be certified in 2006, can walk voters through a ballot in English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, or Tagalog.
So far budget constraints will only allow for two new touch-screen voting booths at each of the county’s 32 polling places, Mike Hodges said, though they will probably have to be augmented somehow since two machines are not enough. The elections office is still playing with ideas on how to stay HAVA compliant within their budget, he added.
The elections office will also be purchasing an optical scan machine for absentee voters. Absentee voters will receive a paper ballot on which they’ll draw a line from an arrow on one side of the ballot to the candidate of their choice on the other. Then the optical scan machine will read each card to tabulate votes. The machine could also be used to count votes on paper from anyone who didn’t want to wait in line for the two touch-screen booths at their polling place.
While there’s only one company so far, Sequoia Pacific, that has its touch-screen and optical scan equipment certified by both the state of California and the United States, John Hodges said there should be about four to choose from by the end of the year. At last week’s county board of supervisors meeting, Chairman Reb Monaco and District 1 Supervisor Don Marcus were appointed to serve on an advisory committee with acting County Administrative Officer Susan Lyons.
The committee will be sending its contract out for bid once there are other companies with certified equipment in order to get a competitive price, John Hodges said.
Jessica Quandt covers politics for the Free Lance. Reach her at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or at [email protected].
