Touch-screen voting machines set for 2004 elections

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by Thomas Dennison
Staff Writer

The state's Board of Public Works approved a $55.6 million contract for 11,000 new voting machines last week, a move that will assure the state has one voting system for next year's presidential election.

Voters will cast their ballots electronically by using touch-screen voting machines.

Prince George's, Montgomery, Allegany, and Dorchester counties successfully tested the new machines last year.

The new machines will be distributed to the state's remaining 20 jurisdictions beginning next month and will be ready for the March presidential primaries, state elections officials said.

"It's something that our voters deserve as technology is improving," said David Heller, who led the new voting machine project for the State Board of Elections. "We need to put technology in the hands of our citizens at every aspect that we can."

The three-member Board of Public Works -- Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R), Comptroller William Donald Schaefer (D) and Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp (D) -- has been concerned about expensive state contracts, but decided to approve the costly voting machine contract without much fanfare.

"As far as I know he didn't have any objections," said Christine DuRay, a spokeswoman for Schaefer, who is known to tear into state bureaucrats for spending money when the state is facing mounting budget deficits.

"The governor did not have any problems with it," said Henry P. Fawell, an Ehrlich spokesman. "The key here was to have this in place to insure the state is in good position to receive additional federal dollars."

By implementing the new voting machines, manufactured by Ohio-based Diebold Election Systems Inc., Maryland is in compliance with the federal government's Help America Vote Act of 2002, which followed the 2000 election debacle in Florida.

"People really loved them," Heller said of the touch-screen machines, which are similar to ones used at some convenience stores to order sandwiches. "They found them very easy to use, and for the first time ever, blind people will be able to vote unassisted."

According to Diebold, its contract with Maryland is the largest voting system agreement in the United States and puts the state at the forefront of election reform.

"This deal, combined with our previous successes, should give other states and counties enough confidence in our ability to provide the highest quality of product and service in the voting industry," Thomas W. Swidarski, Diebold's senior vice president for strategic development and global marketing, said in a statement. "We're hopeful more states will consider a uniform approach to modernizing their legacy elections equipment."