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Commissioner Tom Balya Mayors' Forum
Minutes
Saturday, April 1, 2006, 9:00 a.m.
Lora's Restaurant, Greensburg
Attending Mayors:
Butch Bellas, Ligonier
Betty Cain, New Alexandria
John Campbell, Arnold
Joan Derco, Youngwood
Karl Eisaman, Greensburg
Kevin Karazsia, Trafford
Don Kinosz, Lower Burrell
Martin Litrun, Penn Borough
Jerry Lucia, Mt. Pleasant
Ed Lyons, North Belle Vernon
Rich McGinnis, Derry
Bob Prah, Smithton
Jim Roman, South Greensburg
Dan Rose, Irwin
Joyce Somers, Murrysville
Shawn Teacher, Southwest Greensburg
Guest Speaker: Paula
Pedicone Director,
Westmoreland County Bureau of Elections
Welcome: Commissioner Balya greeted the
gathering of mayors and welcomed them to Greensburg. He then introduced
Greensburg Mayor Karl Eisaman to provide an overview of happenings in his
city, as is the custom for the host mayor.
Host Mayor Remarks: Mayor Eisaman welcomed the group
to Greensburg and then talked about the development underway in Greensburg.
He began by highlighting the new comprehensive plan that the city recently
approved, along with South Greensburg, Southwest Greensburg and Hempfield
Township, which paves the way for increased cooperation among the
municipalities. He also discussed the successful partnership with the county
is helping to redevelop the city's downtown. There are many projects
underway in Greensburg, including a new state office building, a four-story
expansion of the county's Courthouse Extension and Seton Hill's University's
$18 million Center for the Performing Arts. In addition, 400 new parking
spaces are being planned in the downtown area.
Guest Speaker:
Before introducing the day's guest speaker, Commissioner Balya talked about
how the goal of the mayors' forums is to discuss current issues most
relevant to the mayors' communities. Nothing in county government is more
relevant today than the county's new electronic voting machines that will be
used for the first time during the May 16th primary election. Commissioner
Balya explained that the change to electronic voting systems is the result
of the Help America Vote Act -- federal legislation passed in the wake of
mishaps in the 2000 presidential election. Pennsylvania counties were
required to comply with the new law by the 2006 primary.
Commissioner Balya explained
further that the switch to the new voting system was recently resolved in
the state Supreme Court. The Pennsylvania Department of State had deemed
that the federal legislation superceded the state's Constitution that
requires a referendum before switching voting machines. Westmoreland County
followed the state's directive, only to be sued by a group of voter
activists. The Supreme Court ruled in March that Westmoreland County could
use the new system.
Before purchasing the 750
voting machines the county will need, the systems first had to be certified
by the federal and state governments. Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VPATs)
are not required by the state at this time, due to conflicts with state
voter confidentially provisions.
The county went through a
selection process that involved a number of potential vendors with the help
of a citizen's panel. Following this process last year, the county chose to
purchase iVotronic systems produced by ES&S of Nebraska. The cost of the new
machines (approximately $3 million) is being completely covered by federal
grant money.
Commissioner Balya
concluded his remarks by reminding the mayors of a voter outreach and
education program underway to show the system to county residents. (Note: An
announcement regarding the demonstration schedule is attached.) An on-line
demonstration is also available through the Westmoreland County homepage at
www.co.westmoreland.pa.us.
Commissioner Balya then
introduced County Elections Director Paula Pedicone.
Ms. Pedicone explained that
the process to initiate new voting systems has been more than a year in the
making. She also reminded the mayors that Westmoreland County's due
diligence is paying dividends in the fact that Westmoreland County is far
ahead of surrounding counties in purchasing machines, training workers and
voters, and preparing for the primary. However, because the county was
leading the way in getting voting machines, it got sued.
Paula emphasized several
important points that voters need to know. First, the county will not use
dual systems -- every voter will use the iVotronic DRE. Some other counties
will be running dual systems to accommodate voters that are visually
impaired. The county's system has the option for visually impaired
individuals to use a headset and have their ballot choices be audible.
Second, Paula informed the mayors that the county's voting machines allow
election workers to completely reconstruct the election, vote by vote,
should a re-canvass be required. The recount would, however, be scrambled to
protect personal votes.
Paula's remarks were concise,
and she then performed a demo of the voting machine and invited all the
mayors to individually sample vote on it.
Following the demonstration
and sample cotes by the mayors, and with no further business, the meeting
adjourned at approximately 10:30 a.m.
(Note 1: Any mayor interested
in hosting an upcoming forum should contact Commissioner Balya's office at
724.830.3100.)
(Note 2: Minutes from
this and previous Mayors' Forums are available on-line at
www.tombalya.org.) |
