Jackson Free Press

The Help America Vote Act of 2002, passed in response to the troubled 2000 presidential elections, requires each state to have up-to-date voting machines installed and ready by Jan. 1, 2006. Meeting this demand, Mississippi followed through with its own modernization. Secretary of State Eric Clark showed off the results at an Aug. 3 conference at the state Capitol.

Joined by members of the Coalition for Citizens with Disabilities and representatives of Diebold Inc., Clark paraded the easy accessibility of Diebold's new TSX voting machines. The machines feature multi-function capability, such as auditory input options and a removable faceplate that can be carried down to a handicapped vehicle for curbside service during the next election.

"Of the ones that we've tried out, I'd say it rates among the most accessible. It was also one of the lowest bids that came in to the state," said Mary Troupe, executive director of the Coalition for Citizens with Disabilities. Troupe, who uses a wheelchair, said she had no problem voting on the machines.

Though welcomed by Troupe, the machines have had problems in California, where election officials recently rejected the same machines after tests revealed unacceptable levels of screen freezes and paper jams. The TSX voting machine was found to have a failure rate of 10 percent in a mock election. California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson said that was too high a risk.

A later Associated Press story said the machines fared worse than previously disclosed, with almost 20 percent of the touch-screen machines crashing. Nineteen machines had 21 screen freezes or system crashes, producing a blue screen and messages about an "illegal operation" or a "fatal exception error."

Clark said he is confident that the problem won't be an issue in Mississippi. "That had to do it with printers, which are not part of our purchase at this point," Clark said.

Clark said he knew nothing about the software difficulties resulting in blue screen errors on the California machines. "These machines are the best machines they can buy. They've been certified by government standards. They've been phenomenally successful in Georgia and other places where they've been used."

Unlike California, Clark said that Mississippi has no plan for a mock election. "The first elections they'll be used in will be the congressional primaries on June 2006. We intend to roll them out and have them in the courthouses by this December," Clark said.

Diebold representative Buck Jones said the company is working on the blue-screen crashes. "The screen freezes. That's also something we're working on, but it did not lose a single vote. ... Nothing was lost," Jones said.

However, Mississippi Democratic Club Chairwoman Ann Williams said she remains suspicious of Diebold the company, especially in light of an August 2003 statement by Diebold Inc. CEO Walden O'Dell that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president (Bush) next year." Bush won Ohio, against the predictions of exit polls, rousing suspicions and subsequent investigations in some states.

Williams, on behalf of her own and other organizations, including the NAACP and the League of Women Voters, hand-delivered an Aug. 3 letter to Clark's office, asking him to cancel the deadline set for counties to accept the machines. Currently there are only about six counties in the state that meet the federal requirements for modernized voting machines, of which Hinds and Rankin comprise only two. Other counties may opt out of the plan and buy into a vendor of their own selection, paid for by county money, or accept the Diebold machines for free.

Fearing corporate interference in election results, Williams has also asked for a copy of the contract the state signed with Diebold, Inc., hoping to discern how close ties will be between ballot counts and Diebold executives. Williams said that ITS Technology Consultant Donna R. Hamilton told her that ITS has received a protective order for Diebold Election Systems "prohibiting the release of their proposal, the project contract and other documents related to this procurement."

Information Systems Services Director Martha Pimberton repeated the same answer to Jackson Free Press' requests for the same contract. Though not sure, Hamilton told the JFP that it might take no less than a court order to get the contract open to the public.

Mississippi's TSX machine has garnered criticism by not offering a voter verified "paper trail." Critics say an electronic vote can become anything with the right amount of tampering, despite the fact that the machines use no wireless or cable input. Diebold officials, they say, will still have access to the machines until county officials fully learn how to operate and maintain the systems.

Secretary of State Public Information Officer David Blount, who is, like Clark, a Democrat, said he did not fear corporate malfeasance in any upcoming elections due to GOP sympathies among Diebold CEOs.

"What's frustrating to me is I voted in the last four years on a touch screen machine that had no paper trail, and nobody said anything about it. All of a sudden we come out with these touch screen machines and everybody's shouting 'where's the paper trail?'" said Blount, who sits on the Municipal Democratic Executive Committee.