By Tom Grace
Cooperstown News Bureau
PHOENIX MILLS _ Local counties are receiving new optical-scan voting machines, although elections officials are not certain who will use them this year.
"As it stands right now, they'll probably be used only by persons with disabilities, but we'd like to have everyone use them.'' said Sheila Ross, Otsego County's deputy Republican elections commissioner.
Otsego County has received four scanners, out of 40 ordered.
"We have 33 for polling places, four for training and three for back-ups,'' Ross said.
The new $11,500 machines, Sequois ImageCasts, may not be widely used this fall because their tabulators _ the part that actually counts votes _ has not been certified as accurate by the state.
"As things stand now, the new machines can't be used to count votes; we'll have to do that by hand,'' said William Campbell, Delaware County's Republican elections commissioner.
But the parts of the machine that help disabled people mark ballots _ the sip-and-puff device and the braille keyboard _ have been certified.
People may indicate their preferences at one end of the new machines with the special devices, but after their ballots drop into a tub inside the file-cabinet below, elections officials will have to pull them out and count them manually.
And for all voters, using the new machines this year will be slower than using lever machines.
"The way it stands now, we'll have to set up the lever machines, too, and I'm sure most people will use them,'' Ross said.
In an election cycle this year that includes presidential, congressional and Legislature races, a full hand-count would be very time-consuming.
"No way do we want to count everything by hand,'' she said.
However, setting up and using lever machines and optical scanners at every polling station also will be unwieldy, according to Campbell and Charlotte Koniuto, Otsego County's GOP elections commissioner.
"It's going to be crowded at the polling stations and confusing if we have to use both machines,'' Koniuto said.
Ideally, the state would certify through testing that the scanners are accurate, she said. Then, county boards of elections and the public would be able to concentrate on one type of machine.
"I think almost every elections commissioner would agree with that,'' Koniuto said.
Counties running over on costs
The purchase of new machines was mandated by the federal government, which provided Otsego County with $567,697 for the changeover. The purchase of equipment, so far, totals $482,310, Ross said, leaving a balance of $85,387.
Still to be paid for are training and supplies, which may push the total cost past the federal amount allocated, she said.
Campbell said Delaware also is slightly over budget in purchasing its 40 machines.
"We had $478,244 in HAVA (Help America Vote Act) money for the purchase and had to spend $483,000,'' he said.
The county will have to make up the difference.
Campbell said counties will hold training sessions to familiarize elections officials and the public with the new technology. There will also be public service announcements on television.
Regarding lever machines, Lee Daghlian, spokesman for the state Board of Elections, said counties may dispose of them as they wish. However, the state has outlawed their use in future public elections, as they do not provide adequate accessibility to persons with disabilities, he said.
"You can't even use them in a school election,'' he said.
Daghlian also said the state is not likely to certify that the scanners are accurate before 2009.
Elections officials in Delaware and Otsego counties said they expect that very few people with disabilities will use the new machines, as people will still have the option of voting by absentee ballot from their homes and may not want to use the new technology.
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