But state gearing up for chad-less system

If you consider lotteries taboo, you might want to stay away from Utah polls in the future.

One of the voting systems that election officials are considering to replace the old punch-card ballots got its technology from, yes, the lottery industry.

"Lotteries have a very similar transaction process to voting," said Jim Snow, marketing director for UNISYN Voting Systems, a subsidiary of International Lottery and Totalizator Systems. "It's really important in (both voting and lotteries) to keep track of all the transactions."

Makes sense when you think about it. One vote, as Bush-Gore Florida 2000 and last November's Washington Terrace election proved, can make all the difference. Similarly, a lottery, as Salt Lake County elections director Julio Garcia noted wryly, "has no room for error. Two winners is not something you want to deal with."

Every state in the union, including Utah, is gearing up to replace its old system in compliance with a federal law passed in the wake of the Bush-Gore Florida boondoggle. Most replacements under consideration are electronic touch-screen versions, all of them touting the fact that they "take that nasty little four-letter word out of the election process," Garcia said.

That word, of course, is "chad."

Except for some handicapped-accessible requirements, states are not technically required to replace their existing equipment. If they don't, however, they will forego big federal bucks ($28 million, in Utah's case) designed to help make the switch.

"If we don't do it now, we're a little bit worried about what will happen in the future," said state elections director Amy Naccarato. "I don't think the federal government will ever put this kind of money into elections again. This is a huge change and a huge responsibility. It's expensive, it's hard, it's scary."

Many officials are skittish about the whole thing. Electronic touch-screen polling machines are enormously expensive -- $3,000- $4,000 a pop -- and the large, unwieldy machines need costly storage space and transportation procedures. What's more, tales of problems with the machines -- hackers, software glitches -- have been making the rounds and getting people nervous.

"I think this (federal law) is a knee-jerk reaction," said Salt Lake County Councilman David Wilde. "I think Congress got overly excited about what happened in Florida. We're paying a whole lot of money, and I'm not sure we're getting anything better."

Despite reservations, and despite the fact that punch-card systems have been remarkably accurate and successful in Utah, state and county officials have decided to replace them.

"Punch cards have such a black eye, if anything were to go wrong with them we would end up in the spotlight," Naccarato said.

A selection committee is to be formed this month to decide what the replacement system will be, which must be in place by the 2006 election.

Snow, for his part, is pushing in partnership with others his lottery company's InkaVote system, similar in almost every way to punch-card systems except the stylus makes a mark on the ballot instead of punching a hole. Officials like it because it's a cheap alternative -- $30 per machine, one one-hundredth the cost of touch- screen systems -- although it needs additional equipment to qualify for federal dollars.

E-mail: aedwards@desnews.com

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