Voting Rights: The Cost of Optical Scanners vs Electronic Voting Machines By Eric Jaffa, Tuesday, May 24, 2005
To read about a study comparing the costs, click here.
Introduction We use optical scan voting machines throughout Minnesota. Fortunately, our Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer doesn't plan to change this. Optical scan (fill-in-the-oval) ballots are better than electronic voting machines in every way, including ease of use, ease of recounts, and price. Choosing optical scan ballots is good for citizens, but bad for voting machines companies out for profit. The state of New York is still deciding which voting machines to buy, and seems likely to let each county choose. As I described earlier this month, lobbyists for voting machine companies in New York state and elsewhere are pushing the more expensive electronic voting machines, not optical scanners.
The electronic voting machine companies and their lobbyists claim YOU'LL ACTUALLY SAVE MONEY LATER BY SPENDING MORE NOW. In reality, electronic voting machines have greater initial cost and greater long-term maintenance costs. The president of Diebold, Thomas W. Swidarski, tried to con the people of New York with a deceptive letter to the New York Times which emphasized the per-unit-cost of electronic voting machines being lower than optical-scanners. This is deceptive because a precinct with electronic voting machines typically needs several, while a precinct which uses an optical scanner typically needs only one. Cost-of-Paper Electronic voting machine proponents also try to con people by saying that PAPER is so expensive that using a paper-less system will save money after the initial purchase of machines. Paper ballots for optical scanners cost 20 cents each. The argument that this is too expensive may offend the common sense of citizens, but officials being wined-and-dined by lobbyists and promised fancy jobs if they go along have a different perspective. A Study of Two Counties in Florida An excellent study by Rosemarie F. Myerson compares a county in Florida with electronic voting machines to one with optical scanners. The average cost-per-year in the electronic voting machines county of Sarasota was $2,883,659. The average cost-per-year in the optical scan ballot county of Manatee, adjusted for population, was $1,724,256 (the unadjusted average was $1,379,405.) Each county had already purchased the respective machines before the start of the comparison years of 2002-2004. In both counties, the expenses are to maintain the system. Electronic voting machines have greater initial costs, and the study shows they also have greater maintenance costs. Manatee County which uses optical scanners is saving a million dollars per year compared with Sarasota which uses electronic voting machines.
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