Reply #6: Arkansas: Voting-counting Gear Due to Arrive in Time For Testing

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Voting-counting gear due to arrive in time for testing

BY DANIEL NASAW

Posted on Saturday, April 29, 2006

Equipment needed to program Pulaski County’s votecounting machines for the May primary will arrive on time to test the equipment and ensure an accurate tally, the county Election Commission said Friday.

But the gear won’t come in time to check roughly 900 absentee ballots set to be mailed over the next few days. If the machines fail to correctly read sample ballots in a Monday test, election workers will have to reprint all the paper ballots to be used on election day — at a cost of about $ 75, 000 — and hand count absentee ballots after the polls close on May 23, officials said.

At Friday’s commission meeting, Director of Elections Susan Inman said she had assurances from the secretary of state’s office that the needed equipment would be delivered Monday.

The secretary of state’s office contracted voting equipment vendor Election Systems & Software in November to provide touch-screen voting machines and optical-scan readers.

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http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/153156/