New Voting Machine Deadline

In an attempt to hasten the replacement of outdated election equipment, Secretary of State Bill Jones on Monday moved up the deadline to 2005 for Los Angeles and eight other counties to have new voting machines.

To spare California the kind of “hanging chad” debacle that stalled the last presidential contest in Florida, Jones in September banned the use of punch-card ballot systems in California beginning in January 2006. On Monday, Jones pushed that up to July 2005, saying that county election chiefs and voting-machine makers have assured him they can get new systems installed sooner than 2006.

“The likelihood of voter disenfranchisement, anger and discouragement increases each time a new system is put in place,” said Jones, a Republican candidate for governor. “We should do it once, and we should do it right. We owe it to the voters, and they expect that from us.”

The kind of equipment Jones seeks to replace dates to the 1960s. It requires voters to poke holes in a pre-scored ballot with a metal stylus. Sometimes tiny punched-out pieces of paper, called chads, cling to the ballot and confound vote counters.

In the November 2000 election, contested punch cards in Florida left America waiting 36 days to learn whether George W. Bush or Al Gore had won the presidency. Poll workers scrutinized tens of thousands of ballots for dimpled and hanging chads.

Replacing punch-card voting machines with more modern methods, such as computers that allow voters to choose a candidate by touching a screen, will cost $90 million to $100 million in Los Angeles alone, said Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Conny McCormack.

She and Jones urged Californians to support Proposition 41 in the March election. The ballot measure would allow California to borrow $200 million to help counties pay for new voting machines.

County elections chiefs are also hoping for an infusion of federal money. Last week, the House of Representatives passed an election reform bill that would give California more than $100 million for voting technology. That bill is expected to move to the Senate in January.

Nearly half of California’s voters now use punch-card ballots. Besides Los Angeles, the counties affected by Jones’ order are San Diego, San Bernardino, Sacramento, Santa Clara, Shasta, Mendocino, Alameda and Solano.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California said Jones should force the replacement of punch-card voting machines before the November 2004 election. The ACLU sued Jones in April, arguing that punch-card ballots have an error rate twice that of any other voting system used in California. The suit is scheduled for trial in February.

Jones said he did not want to risk errors by rushing the installation of new voting machines in time for the 2004 presidential election. McCormack agreed that it is better to test a new system in an off-year election, which will draw fewer voters.

There are no state or federal elections in November 2005, only a smattering of local elections, including the Los Angeles City Council, according to the secretary of state’s office.