Arkansas seeks bids on new voting systems

(I saw this while researching for the "daily thread" and thought people here might be interested.) :hi: from Alabama

Arkansas seeks bids on new voting systems

7/12/05

By the end of next year, every county could vote electronically.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Arkansas is moving closer to acquiring new voting systems for each of its 75 counties. State and federal officials want to prevent the balloting crisis that led to the unprecedented recounts in Florida in the presidential election in 2000.

Secretary of State Charlie Daniels is seeking bids on new voting equipment systems that are estimated to cost more than $18 million. Daniels' office is upgrading voting systems statewide to comply with state and federal election laws passed after the recount in 2000 that determined George W. Bush's win over Al Gore.

At least one new electronic voting machine will be available at each of the polls in the primary elections on May 23 in Arkansas. The new systems will not be entirely in place throughout the state until the general election in November of next year.

By the primaries in May, the new systems will be in place in the 13 counties, including several in the KY3 area, that still use punch card and lever machines and in the nine counties that still count paper ballots by hand. There also will be at least one electronic voting machine at every polling place in the state.

The 13 counties using punch card and lever machines are Arkansas, Baxter, Benton, Boone, Desha, Faulkner, Hot Spring, Jefferson, Marion, Mississippi, Saline, Searcy, and White. The nine counties with paper ballots are Cleveland, Franklin, Izard, Lafayette, Little River, Prairie, Scott, Van Buren, and Yell.

Link: http://www.ky3.com/newsdetailed.asp?id=8384