Voting-machine bill worries Utahns

While proposed changes to the nation's voting laws may not require replacing Utah's 2-year-old electronic voting machines, time-consuming and potentially expensive equipment updates would probably be necessary.

The changes could cause enough difficulties that many of Utah's county elected officials are weighing in with resolutions opposing HR811, a bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., that would require all electronic machines to produce a voter-verifiable paper ballot that is "durable."

Although Utah's machines, which are manufactured by Diebold, produce a machine that has a paper ballot, election officials are worried about the durable requirement.

The other significant change could be the extent of the audits required on the machines following an election. Currently, the state requires that one to 5 percent of the ballots be audited, but HR811 would require audits of between 3 and 10 percent.

In Utah County, where small glitches interrupted the election process last November, election officials are saying the proposed change to a scannable paper ballot would be disastrous.

"We've literally spent millions of dollars to implement this machinery, and it was all accurate," said Sandy Hoffman, Utah County elections coordinator. "If they forced us to use a scanned ballot it would take us forever and the press would maybe not even get election results on election night, it would take that long."

Utah and Davis county commissioners unanimously passed resolutions on Tuesday to "vehemently" oppose HR811, as part of a statewide movement against the bill.

For last year's elections, Utah County received 1,074 electronic voting machines — paid for by federal grants — which cost about $3 million. In addition to that, the county has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain the machines, Utah County Clerk/Auditor Bryan Thompson said.

Davis County currently has 833 electronic voting machines, valued at more than $2.4 million, according to the Davis commissioners' resolution.

A change to optical-scan systems would likely be a waste of the $27 million it cost to buy electronic machines in Utah, said Davis County Clerk/Auditor Steve Rawlings.

Davis County's resolution urges Congress to reject HR811, citing voter confidence in the electronic voting machines, the cost to purchase and maintain the machines as well as train people to use them.

"Change to a new voting system would actually erode voter confidence in the election process," the resolution states.