Reply #18: IN: Voting software may get last-minute certification [View All]

[EFerrari]

Voting software may get last-minute certification

By KEVIN KOELLING
Managing Editor

PERRY COUNTY - County Clerk Debbie Weatherholt received word Monday new voting machines to be used in the primary election should be officially certified by state officials Friday.

The fact that MicroVote Infinity voting machines, purchased by Perry and other Indiana counties for use this year, have not yet been certified was revealed in news reports last week.

A. J. Feeney-Ruiz, communications director for the Indiana secretary of state, said Tuesday the lack of certification came to light in hearings this month examining complaints MicroVote was selling equipment whose certifications had expired.

Counties throughout the state responded to the news in different ways. Weatherholt said April 18 she might have had to order paper ballots for Perry County's voters. Allen County Election Board officials voted to go ahead and use MicroVote machines, an Associated Press report in Sunday's Indianapolis Star said. That would have left the county vulnerable to a lawsuit by the state or a candidate, but keep it from violating federal election law. All 47 counties using MicroVote Infinity machines would be in violation of federal law - and might have to return some of the federal money used to purchase them - if the equipment could not be used, an April 20 Star report noted.

http://www.perrycountynews.com/articles/2006/04/27/headlines/h4.txt