Our confidence is paper thin if allotted time is this short

Also see:
State fails to provide counties enough money and time to comply with new elections standards
Estimated maximum grant amounts by county
Sequoia withdraws from SBOE certification process (Dec. 8)
State Board of Elections certifies voting equipment (Dec. 1)
Certified and decertified equipment as of Dec. 1 (PDF)

As if boards of county commissioners don’t have enough to do already as we begin preparing for the budget season, the State Board of Elections decided to drop another project in our plate in early December.

The SBOE announced Dec. 1 that virtually all existing elections equipment in North Carolina could not be used for the upcoming May 2 primaries. Many counties – mine included – have bought elections equipment within the past two years designed to meet stricter Help America Vote Act (HAVA) guidelines established by the federal government that are set to go into effect Jan. 1, 2006.

Of course, we had no way of knowing the General Assembly was going to add additional requirements to what Congress approved. If we did, Catawba County certainly would not have spent more than $1 million of taxpayer funds in 2003 to buy new voting equipment.

When counties set their 2005-06 budgets last spring, they also had no way of knowing that the state would not provide adequate funding to meet these new requirements. This is essentially another unfunded mandate on counties.

The Association is asking the General Assembly and the SBOE to delay implementation of the paper trail requirement. Counties with HAVA-compliant equipment should be able to use that equipment for the May primary. Not only would this ease the pressure on counties to decide which kinds of equipment to buy and give us more time to figure out where to come up with the additional money for the new machines, but it would give the vendors adequate time to manufacture and test the thousands of machines that will be needed.

Some counties are considering reverting to paper ballots for the primary to buy more time. While that is a viable option, it also presents an entirely different set of problems and would certainly lead to delays in reporting elections results.

The General Assembly’s intent was to produce elections that would instill confidence in voters that their vote is being accurately counted. Giving counties less than five months to order, install and train poll workers on the new equipment could very well lead to serious problems on Election Day, and that outcome would certainly not instill the public’s confidence in our elections.