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VOTING MACHINE STATUS and LAWS IN NORTH CAROLINA
The State of North Carolina bans punch card and lever machines after January 2006.
Optical Scanners and also Paper Ballots (hand counted) are not banned. (HAVA does not ban these either).
The N.C. Board of Elections anticipates that the EAC will announce its preliminary recommendations in April 2005.
Until that time, it is expected that the BOE will not certify any new equipment.
NC State Law Banning Punchcard Machines:
Punchcards have to be replaced by January 1, 2006. Testing is required by GS 163-165.8 and is expounded upon in rule 8 NCAC 4.0307. The election test is conducted at an election or one-stop site in the discretion of the county board. From now until until January 1, 2006, there will be 4 one-stop voting periods, one non-municipal primary, one general election, one municipal primary, and a municipal general election. In addition, some counties will have special elections. So, ...the counties have the choice and opportunity to perform the election test either in 2004 or 2005. Of course, the county is in the best position to determine if a 2004 test is preferred in that it may give more time to actually implement the system prior to 2006.
Some counties are choosing to purchase optical scanners, and will purchase or lease ADA readers to add to them later for 2006.
THE N.C. BOE PLACES MORATORIUM ON CERTIFICATION OF NEW EQUIPTMENT MARCH 27, 2004
Machines Currently Certified in North Carolina Do Not Produce a Voter Verified Paper Ballot:
The N.C. State Board of Elections Closed Door to Certification of New Voting Systems Effective MARCH 27, 2004, is waiting for EAC GUIDELINES:
Per Don Wright, General Counsel for the NC BOE:
"limitation on voting machines" This refers to the action of the State Board on Thursday, March 25th, not to consider any new voting systems for certification effective March 27, 2004 until the EAC generates guidelines as to voting systems and they are considered by the State Board. Currently certified voting systems may submit changes and improvements to the State Board for approval.
Specifically, the State Board did two things as to voting systems Thursday. First, they made the no new system certification policy set out above. Secondly, they directed that no voting system updates, corrections, or modifications could be made to current voting systems starting 25 days before any voting starts in an election, without the direct approval and participation of the State Board and staff. Absentee voting starts 50 days before elections, so we are talking about a 75 day period from election day.
AcuPoll had a DRE denied certification Thursday because it had not been met ITA approval for the current federal voting system standards; only the 1990 standards. Also the machine had design problems as to its curbside use. This machine does print a paper record that is received by the voter, but that paper is not machine deposited or protectively displayed as per the California proposal.
In summary, the State Board renewed its commitment to await EAC guidelines as to voting systems.
MACHINES FEDERALLY CERTIFIED THAT PRODUCE A VOTER VERIFIED PAPER BALLOT:
Since then, Ohio, Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, West Virginia, Utah and South Dakota have certified AccuPoll for their state. Ohio won't even let Diebold sell their machines in Ohio. (Diebold's home state).
MAY 17, 2004 AVANTE RECEIVES 2002 NASED CERTIFICATION - First True Pixel-Based Optical Mark-Sense Voting System Achieved 0% Error Rate In 1.5 Million Votes To Receive The First 2002 NASED Certification Based On Federal Voting Standard http://www.aitechnology.com/votetrakker2/news.html
CAUTION:
IT IS NOT AGAINST THE LAW TO MARKET OR INSTALL ILLEGAL SOFTWARE INTO VOTING MACHINES:
Per Don Wright, General Counsel:
"Since 1949, there has been legal requirements that all voting systems used in North Carolina must be approved by the State Board. The violation of this legal mandate has not been classified as a crime nor is there a provision for fines. This requirement was set out in Article 14 of Chapter 163 of the General Statutes until replaced by a more detailed Article 14A of Chapter 163 of the General Statutes in 2002."
VENDORS ARE NOT REQUIRED BY LAW TO REPORT KNOWN FLAWS IN THEIR VOTING SYSTEMS THAT REQUIRE REPAIR OR UPRADING, THAT COULD AFFECT THE OUTCOME OF THE ELECTION: Per Don Wright, General Counsel for the NC BOE, All vendors and counties have been requested to report any problems by the State Board's office. The State Board supervises all election matters."
WHO MANAGES THE STATE-WIDE COMPUTER DATABASE OF REGISTERED VOTERS:
Per Don Wright, General Counsel for the NC BOE:
The N.C. S.B.O.E. has used and uses contract Information Technology workers from the States convenience contract to supplement the agency employees that run this agencys state-wide computer database of registered voters.
That system is called SEIMS. It is state developed, state maintained, and state owned.
You may go on our website to learn more about SEIMS. All contract workers work under the supervision of Bob Rauf, our agencys IT director. The companies from which these persons are leased are approved by the office of Information Technology Services,
which oversees all IT operations in North Carolina State Government.
Monthly reports are submitted to the Information Management Review Commission which in turn conducts quality assurance reviews of SEIMS. The IT contractors we currently lease are from a company called Technisource."
NOTE TO ELECTION OFFICIALS:
Voting Machine Salesmen that have committed crimes may try to sell you voting machine equipment.
One way to prevent this is to write into your RFP the following: a clause prohibiting the county from contracting with businesses that have any officers or directors who have been convicted of securities fraud. The Vendors must pass this test. You want to make sure that convicted embezzlers, bribers, money launderers and such are not managing the businesses that are trying to sell you voting machines.
If you don't think this can happen, then see the NC Voter Page on Bribery
One salesman who pled guilty to bribing a NC Election Director in the 90s is Vice President of another voting machine company. | 
