Pa. county switches from touch-screen to optical scan e-voting machines

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March 6, 2008 (Computerworld) Three weeks after deciding to replace its touch-screen e-voting machines with a model from a new vendor, officials in Lackawanna County, Pa., reversed course and will instead buy optical scanning equipment for the county's voters.

In an announcement Tuesday, the county's board of commissioners said they ended up choosing the optical scanning equipment not because of concerns about the controversial touch screens, but because they couldn't resolve legal concerns involving the proposed deal with the Allen, Texas-based vendor, Premier Election Solutions Inc.

The county wanted guarantees that Premier's new equipment would meet state and federal e-voting equipment certification standards into the future, but the company would only provide a performance guarantee for one election cycle.

"That was an issue," said Lynne Shedlock, the county's communications director. "We decided to change directions after those assurances were not forthcoming."

The touch-screen machines are also known as Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) devices. The choice between touch-screen and optical scan systems is often a hot issue. Touch-screen machines have been widely criticized by e-voting activists because of concerns about security, reliability and the lack of a built-in paper trail for accurate recounts, but optical scanning systems without random postelection audits also have their critics.

Chris Riggall, a Premier spokesman, said today that an agreement for a long-term performance guarantee wasn't possible because political leadership changes often, as do the related rules for e-voting systems.

"As we look down the road to provide a 100% guarantee ... [it] is a very hard thing to do from a business perspective," Riggall said. "We were not able to reach an agreement that worked for both of us." He added that Premier respects the county's decision.

The $1.3 million contract for optical scanning equipment and paper ballots that the county will purchase from Election Systems & Software Inc. (ES&S) was the board's second choice, Shedlock said. Voters liked using touch-screen equipment, she said, which played into the board's choice in replacing the county's existing touch screens with the new models, she said.

The county's touch-screen machines, however, were decertified by state elections officials last year because the vendor, Advanced Voting Solutions Inc. (AVS) in Frisco, Texas, wanted to charge fees for software changes needed to ensure certification for the devices. County officials said the company should foot the bill for the work. The AVS machines were purchased in 2006 for $1.7 million, which will be reimbursed by the state to allow the purchase of the new ES&S machines.

An AVS spokesman could not be reached today. Calls to two telephone numbers for the company said the lines had been disconnected.