PA WINvote Counties poised to go with MORE DREs?

[demodonkey]

From this article in the Allentown paper, it appears that the three Pennsylvania WINvote counties may be heading toward an incredibly hasty DRE choice at Pennsylvania taxpayers' expense, perhaps the infamous Danaher 1242 or the Sequoia Advantage if the counties fall for the "full face" misinformation in the article.

Please note that both certified full face machines, the Danaher 1242 and the Sequoia Advantage, have incredibly poor disability access coupled with a history of disproportionately disenfranchising minorities. They are also the oldest computer based systems, and the most expensive. ALL the Pennsylvania certified DRE systems fall within the 300-400 voters per day range according to their certification documents issued by the Secretary of the Commonwealth. The precinct count optical scanners, of course, can handle many more voters per unit because each ballot takes only a few seconds to scan.

Naturally, VotePA is advocating for a voter-marked precinct-count optical scan voting system with ballot marker for the strongest auditability and strongest available disability and minority language access. We would appreciate any assistance any of you can offer to influence these counties to make the right choice here.

Marybeth


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http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b3_3vote.6218269jan09,0,3658441.story

County racing to find new voting machines
Officials will meet with vendors Tuesday. They must pick by month's end to be set for primary.
By Joe Nixon | Of The Morning Call
January 9, 2008

(snipped)

The proposed time frame is tight but necessary, county officials have said. The county needs to have a new system in place in time to train voting office staff and poll workers for the April 22 primary. Northampton County will host a vendor fair of sorts Tuesday at the county Government Center in Easton. Invited are officials from Lackawanna and Wayne counties, the only two Pennsylvania counties besides Northampton that were using Advanced Voting Solutions Inc. machines, now decertified by the state over testing and other issues.

Conklin said officials from Northampton, Lackawanna and Wayne will meet with the state's five certified voting machine vendors Tuesday morning. In the afternoon, he said, there will be more demonstrations during an open session that will be attended by the Northampton County Election Commission.

County election workers will formulate a recommendation for the commission, which will meet Wednesday to make a recommendation to the county. That advisory will go before County Council at its meeting the next day. Conklin said a decision is needed at that council meeting because council doesn't meet again until Feb. 7. He said all five voting systems certified by the state are available to the county through the state contract system, meaning the county can make a purchase without requesting bids. Conklin said he envisioned training on the new system in February for county elections staff and for poll workers in March.

Northampton could choose a full-face electronic machine, one that would show the entire ballot, much like a traditional mechanical lever machine. Choosing a full-face machine would reduce the number of machines the county needs to purchase. County officials also are weighing the possibility of opting for a lease-purchase agreement with the chosen vendor.