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BACKGROUND: VOTING SYSTEMS IN INDIAN RIVER COUNTY <br />2000 — Present <br />I want to provide you with some background detailing legislation that has affected <br />voting equipment in Florida during the last several years. <br />In 2001, the Legislature passed the Comprehensive Election Reform Act which <br />banned punch card voting machines. In 2002, Indian River County purchased a <br />new voting system utilizing touchscreen voting equipment at all polling <br />locations. Indian River County paid $1,832,563 for the new voting technology <br />from Sequoia Voting Systems which included voting equipment, software and <br />firmware. <br />During the 2007 Legislative session, House Bill 537 was passed and it required <br />counties in Florida to use mark sense ballots (paper ballots) for precinct and <br />early voting sites. It also required a touchscreen voting machine at each precinct <br />and early voting site for voters with disabilities. <br />The Legislature in 2007 provided money for Indian River County to purchase 54 <br />optical scanners and to lease one Ballot -On -Demand printer to be used for early <br />voting. The State gave Indian River County $310,500 to buy 54 optical scanners. <br />That amounted to one optical scanner per precinct with none for training or <br />back-up. A separate grant in the amount of $45,565.81 was available for leasing <br />one Ballot -On -Demand printer for early voting/absentee printing needs and <br />$17,250 for three optical scanners for early voting. <br />At the time, the Department of State knew that the voting system equipment <br />was and still is "vendor specific," and the Legislature did not intend for counties <br />to buy a whole new voting system. The optical scanners were just one <br />component of a voting system. (As I stated above, Indian River County paid <br />approximately $2 million dollars in 2002 for an entire new voting system.) <br />In 2007, Indian River County already had the Sequoia software for the tabulation <br />system, the ballot layout software, the hardware and software to count <br />absentee ballots, and we had the touchscreen voting machines needed to use in <br />each precinct and early voting site for voters with disabilities. The major <br />component that was missing from Indian River County's voting system was the <br />optical scan voting equipment and software to tabulate paper ballots. <br />47 <br />