Vote machines in short supply for Utah polls

While the governor and state lawmakers are getting ready for a special session this month that most likely will result in further tax cuts, one big problem may be looming on Election Day in November — and it easily could be solved with a relatively small amount of money.

Simply stated, voters may face long lines, especially during peak voting periods in the early morning and in the evening.

I know, some of you are convinced the state's new electronic voting machines will collapse on their own into a molten mass of computerized corruption. But even if they work fine, they will do little good if people can't reach them.

Civic duty is a huge motivator in Utah. People will go through a lot to cast a ballot. But will they endure hours on their feet?

This will be the first general election for electronic voting in Utah, a move made all-but-mandatory by the federal Help America Vote Act, or HAVA. That act came after the 2000 election disaster in Florida that elevated "chad" in the English language to a place far from a small country in Africa. It came with money that was supposed to help each state make the transition to a system that is more accurate and accessible to people with disabilities.

But — and here's a big surprise — the money Washington allocated wasn't enough to get the job done.

Utah ended up with about $27 million, which the lieutenant governor's office divided among the counties, according to need. Meeting with the Deseret Morning News editorial board last week, Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen explained the situation in the state's largest county this way: Under the old punch-card ballot system, the county had about 5,000 machines in place, spread over its polling stations. But the available federal money was enough to purchase only 2,844 electronic voting machines. The county chipped in enough to buy an additional 126, for a total just under 3,000.

"I'm really concerned," she said. "This takes us back to the number of machines we had in the mid-'90s." And the county's population has grown a bit since then.

Swensen figures she can get every voter through on Election Day if each takes an average of seven minutes to cast a ballot. But that works only when voting is spread evenly through the day. Things tend to jam up during peak hours.

"I think a half-hour is plenty of time to wait to vote," Swensen said. But what would happen if the wait grew to an hour, two hours or more?