The first installment of a $17 million contract to buy the computers that will make it possible to vote a week before the Nov. 7 election was approved reluctantly Wednesday by the Board of Public Works.
But state Elections Administrator Linda Lamone told the governor, treasurer and comptroller that 10 of the 21 early-voting sites identified in the law “have problems” and substitutes must be found. This includes all three sites in Howard all three in Montgomery counties, two in Anne Arundel County and one each in Baltimore and Harford counties.
“The major issue is there?s not enough space,” Lamone said.
Legislation enacted despite Gov. Robert Ehrlich?s veto specified 21 sites where voting was to take place in the larger counties. Local and state election officials were not consulted about the locations, nor were Republican lawmakers, who say the polling places favor Democratic areas.
“I?m letting the local boards make the decision” about where the sites can be moved, Lamone said.
The Howard County sites were the libraries in Ellicott City, East Columbia and Savage. “None of them were deemed accessible, and they were all too small,” Lamone said.
There was also not enough space in the Brooklyn Park Senior Center in Anne Arundel and at the Annapolis American Legion Post ? “Their main issue is that they don?t want to shut the bar down,” she said.
In Bel Air, the Harford County government building has “space issues,” and in Baltimore County, the Essex public library is “not accessible” to the handicapped, she said.
Ehrlich and Comptroller William Donald Schaefer spent half an hour grilling Lamone at the board meeting to approve $2.4 million to buy the first of 5,500 machines that will be electronically linked to record when a registered voter has cast a ballot.
“She?s been stuck with [implementing] a lot of poorly drafted legislation,” Ehrlich said of Lamone.
Voters will be permitted to cast ballots at any early polling station in the state by giving their name, address, birth date and signature.
But though the state Board of Elections had opposed the new law, Lamone insisted that “the elections are in good shape.”
“If we do not act [to approve the contract], we will be holding up the state and local election boards from holding this election,” Treasurer Nancy Kopp said.
“We have no other option,” Ehrlich agreed, but said he hopes the voting changes will be blocked by a petition drive and court cases.
