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A Resolution of the County of Allegheny, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, requesting an alteration in County policy regarding the purchase and use of a new election system under the terms of the Help America Vote Act.
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WHEREAS, under the terms of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), Allegheny County is provided with approximately $12 million in federal funding in order to cover the costs of replacing its current lever voting system; and
WHEREAS, in order to maintain its eligibility for this federal funding, the County must ensure that its lever voting machines "will be replaced in time for the first election for Federal office held after January 1, 2006," per the terms of Section 102 of HAVA; and
WHEREAS, as of April 1, 2006, the County had not yet received the Sequoia AVC Advantage voting machines that Allegheny County Board of Elections chose to acquire, nor had these machines even been certified as HAVA-compliant by the Pennsylvania Department of State; and
WHEREAS, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has also not yet certified any voting system as HAVA-compliant that provides a paper record of voters' choices to them for verification before votes are tabulated; and
WHEREAS, although there were over 877,000 registered voters in Allegheny County in 2005 and there are currently 1,314 voting districts in Allegheny County, only approximately 2,800 new voting machines are being purchased; and
WHEREAS, this comparatively low number of machines per voter and voting district both limits the County's ability to react should a problem arise with a number of machines and creates the potential for long wait times as a large number of voters use a small number of machines; and
WHEREAS, the Allegheny County Elections Division is budgeted for only 42 staff members in 2006 with which to administer and oversee the County's transition to an entirely new voting technology, as well as educate the public and poll workers about that technology; and
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