Fixing the HAVA Debacle

The editorial from the March 12, 2005 Columbus Dispatch, page A12 (via Lexis-Nexis) warns

The task of modernizing Ohio's voting systems has faced many obstacles, none bigger than the needless requirement that all methods produce a voter-verifiable paper record... The legislature voted last year to require that all machines generate a paper record visible to voters. That requirement was an overreaction to fears raised by conspiracy theorists... The legislature created this mess and now should deal with it

Do not forget that current Ohio House Majority Whip, Jeff Jacobson played a huge role in killing the 2001 H.B. 5 mandate given unto Blackwell by Governor Taft and the Legislature to fix the punch-card ballot. Next Blackwell labored with Bob Ney (US Rep. R-St. Clarksville) for two years to get HAVA 2002 passed. Thwarted by Ohio's vindictive House, Senate, and Governor for another 2 years through 2004, Blackwell labors on Hercules-like to implement a better system. Begin here to read a more in-depth narrative of the story.

Proving SoS Blackwell right once again, i.e., that voter-verified paper trails are too expensive, Lucas County Commissioners (Toledo area) estimate that $2.4 million extra county- or state-taxpayer dollars will have to be paid out on top of the $3 million federal-taxpayer dollars.

Using the table from Ohio's Department of Development: Office of Strategic Research's (2005 estimates), and assuming Lucas County's estimates is an accurate indicator of cost per resident, I found the cost per resident in the following manner:
1) $2.4 million / 450,000 residents = $5.34/resident.
2) $5.34 * 11.5 million (2005 estimates)= $61,436,559.91.
3) Round up for bureaucratic ineptitude and normal cost overruns and approximately $61.5 - $62 million will be the final cost for machines capable of having voter-verified paper trails.
4) That is $62 million extra tax-payer dollars.

Stick with Blackwell's 1-12-05 directive to buy optical-scan machines. It is cheaper (.pdf file)

Please e-mail the Editor-in-Chief with any questions.