The State Elections Board seems poised to certify machines from 2 vendors for handicapped voters. The State will use Federal funds to place one machine in each polling place. Other voters would presumably contine to use existing systems. For most voters this is Optical scan.
DATE: July 11, 2005
TO: All County Clerks and the Milwaukee County Board of Election Commissioners
All Municipal Clerks and the Milwaukee City Board of Election Commissioners
FROM: Kevin J. Kennedy, Executive Director State Elections Board
SUBJECT: Accessible Voting Equipment
For most of the 20th Century the only provision in Wisconsin election law for a voter with disabilities was the opportunity to cast a ballot at the door with the assistance of two election inspectors. In 1985 all polling places were required to have at least one wheelchair accessible entrance and by 1992 all polling places were required to be fully accessible to the elderly, individuals in wheelchairs, and voters with the full range of disabilities. If a municipality planned to use a polling place that was not fully accessible, municipal clerks were permitted to file a report with the State Elections Board and to reassign voters with disabilities to an accessible polling place elsewhere in the municipality. However with the passage of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) all this has changed.
Under terms of HAVA, Section 301, the voting system used for federal offices must permit all voters to vote privately and independently. With the passage of 2003 Wisconsin Act 265, which incorporated sections of HAVA into state law, municipalities are no longer permitted to use polling places that are not fully accessible, and the municipal clerk is required to make reasonable efforts to comply with requests for voting accommodations made by individuals with disabilities. This means that all polling places must be fully accessible, and every polling place must be equipped with a fully accessible component of voting equipment by January 1, 2006. The U.S. Department of Justice has indicated that they will not allow any waivers or exemptions on these requirements.
The State Elections Board has promulgated a set of administrative rules to establish the process for the approval of electronic voting equipment in Wisconsin. No voting equipment may be purchased or used until it has passed federal qualification and state approval. The U. S. Election Assistance Commission in cooperation with the National Institute of Standards and Technology has developed the Federal Voting System Standards (FVSS). A vendor who wishes to qualify equipment against those standards must apply to an independent testing authority approved by the National Association of State Election Directors. Once equipment has been qualified against the latest version of the FVSS a vendor may then apply for state approval in the state of Wisconsin.
After a vendor has submitted an application for approval in Wisconsin all equipment and materials will then be reviewed by State Elections Board staff and the Election Administration Council. After staff and the Council have reviewed a mock election, other test results, and examined the equipment the system is demonstrated at an Elections Board meeting. The Board will make the final determination on the approval of the voting system at a public meeting.
At this time two vendors, Populex and ES&S, have completed federal qualification against the 2002 standards and have applied for Wisconsin approval. No equipment has yet been approved by the Board. The first round of testing will be held July 27-29, 2005 giving the Board an opportunity to approve equipment at their August 3rd meeting. We expect more vendors to apply for approval by the end of the summer at which time additional rounds of equipment testing will be scheduled. More information on voting equipment approval can be found online at the Clerk's Corner section of the State Elections Board website. As part of the approval process staff is recommending that the board address some of the concerns raised by county and municipal clerks including:
A guarantee of the lowest per unit price based on national sales,
The capability to lock in equipment programming and ballot definition software prices for a specified time period, and
The ability of a county or municipality to select the ballot printer of their choice.
In 2004 congress appropriated funds to assist states in meeting the accessibility requirements of HAVA, Section 301. Wisconsin was allocated approximately $18,000,000 to meet this requirement. It is our understanding that there are approximately 2,800 polling places in use around the state. Therefore we have budgeted $6,000 per polling place to purchase a fully accessible component of voting equipment. The funds will also be used for set up and testing of the new equipment. In other states accessible voting equipment has sold for between $4,500 and $6,500; this means we can only afford one fully accessible component of voting equipment per polling place. Since there is no approved equipment, the mechanism for procurement has not been fully defined. However the following guidelines will be used:
In order to save on audit costs, the State Elections Board plans to make the initial purchase of equipment.
The State Elections Board plans to include all programming and maintenance costs associated with the accessible voting equipment for the spring and fall elections of 2006 as part of the initial purchase.
All polling places need to be certified as fully physically accessible before receipt of accessible voting equipment.
The State Elections Board plans to provide a choice of equipment for municipalities. We encourage municipalities to work together with the counties in planning for the acquisition of voting equipment. If all municipalities in a county were to select the same voting system, the costs of ballot printing, equipment programming, and other consumables could be shared.
In the fall of 2005, after equipment has been approved, the Board will make purchase contracts with multiple vendors for the acquisition of accessible voting equipment. After purchase contracts have been finalized, the State Elections Board will have a list of approved accessible equipment for municipalities to select what equipment they would like to use in their polling places. More information on voting equipment approval can be found online at the Clerk's Corner section of the State Elections Board website.
Please contact D. Richard Rasmussen at (608) 267-3666 if you have any questions