Chuck
July 26th, 2005, 10:22 PM
FRANKFORT - Kentucky voters can rest assured their votes will be
recorded accurately in 2006 and beyond, according to a report from the
Kentucky Board of Elections.
Sarah Ball Johnson, the board's executive director, spoke to a meeting
of the General Assembly's Elections, Constitutional Amendments and
Intergovernmental Affairs Task Force, updating them on the state's
implementation of the Help America Vote Act.
HAVA, approved by Congress in 2002, was passed in light of the
controversy surrounding the 2000 presidential election. The legislation
provides money to the states and local governments to update their
voting machines. Local governments are required to have updated
procedures in place by the 2006 primary elections.
Four major upgrades will be made to voting machines before the next
federal elections, Johnson said:
- Pull-lever voting machines, used in six counties currently but
declared unusable in federal elections, will be replaced by new voting
machines.
- Every county except Jefferson County will have its machines updated
with software that can manually audit its results ballot by ballot.
Jefferson County is the only county that is currently able to print out
each ballot individually for inspection and counting. Each ballot,
however, will be randomly printed out, and no names will be matched to
an individual ballot.
- Each voting location in the state will include at least one
handicapped-accessible voting machine.
- Each county will purchase an optical scanning machine for absentee
ballots, so they can be counted much more quickly on Election Night.
These upgrades and new machines will be paid for using nearly $32.9
million in federal funds, as well as nearly $1.7 million in state money.
Counties will be reimbursed for their purchases up to a fixed amount.
Any leftover funds will be used by the state to address other voting
needs such as making the voting locations themselves
handicapped-accessible. Already, Johnson said, counties are planning to
move some precincts to handicapped-accessible locations such as schools.
Legislation passed in the 2005 session mandates than schools be closed
during primary elections, just as they are in general elections.
In addition, Johnson said, there will be statewide regulations for how
paper ballots can be counted, and how a vote is determined. The goal is
to prevent the "chad" debate after the 2000 election in Florida. "Right
now, it's possible to interpret a marked ballot in different ways, and
we want to make sure it's there in black and white so there's no debate
over what constitutes a vote," Johnson said. "If a ballot is thrown out
in County A, it will be thrown out in County B."
recorded accurately in 2006 and beyond, according to a report from the
Kentucky Board of Elections.
Sarah Ball Johnson, the board's executive director, spoke to a meeting
of the General Assembly's Elections, Constitutional Amendments and
Intergovernmental Affairs Task Force, updating them on the state's
implementation of the Help America Vote Act.
HAVA, approved by Congress in 2002, was passed in light of the
controversy surrounding the 2000 presidential election. The legislation
provides money to the states and local governments to update their
voting machines. Local governments are required to have updated
procedures in place by the 2006 primary elections.
Four major upgrades will be made to voting machines before the next
federal elections, Johnson said:
- Pull-lever voting machines, used in six counties currently but
declared unusable in federal elections, will be replaced by new voting
machines.
- Every county except Jefferson County will have its machines updated
with software that can manually audit its results ballot by ballot.
Jefferson County is the only county that is currently able to print out
each ballot individually for inspection and counting. Each ballot,
however, will be randomly printed out, and no names will be matched to
an individual ballot.
- Each voting location in the state will include at least one
handicapped-accessible voting machine.
- Each county will purchase an optical scanning machine for absentee
ballots, so they can be counted much more quickly on Election Night.
These upgrades and new machines will be paid for using nearly $32.9
million in federal funds, as well as nearly $1.7 million in state money.
Counties will be reimbursed for their purchases up to a fixed amount.
Any leftover funds will be used by the state to address other voting
needs such as making the voting locations themselves
handicapped-accessible. Already, Johnson said, counties are planning to
move some precincts to handicapped-accessible locations such as schools.
Legislation passed in the 2005 session mandates than schools be closed
during primary elections, just as they are in general elections.
In addition, Johnson said, there will be statewide regulations for how
paper ballots can be counted, and how a vote is determined. The goal is
to prevent the "chad" debate after the 2000 election in Florida. "Right
now, it's possible to interpret a marked ballot in different ways, and
we want to make sure it's there in black and white so there's no debate
over what constitutes a vote," Johnson said. "If a ballot is thrown out
in County A, it will be thrown out in County B."