Secretary of state: We need new voting machines

CARSON CITY -- Nevada's aging electronic voting machines could have contributed to complaints of voting irregularities during the Nov. 2 election, Secretary of State Ross Miller said Tuesday.

"The machines are aging," Miller said of the touch-screen voting machines. "They aren't as responsive to touching."

But Miller said there is no evidence votes were improperly cast in the recent election. Everyone who complained about a machine was interviewed, and any problems were rectified, he said.

His investigators found no evidence that machines somehow were programmed to cast ballots for candidates that the voters did not support, he said.

In some cases, voters "could have bumped into the machines" and accidentally cast votes for candidates they did not intend to support, he added.

The secretary of state made his comments following a short meeting in which the state Supreme Court canvassed and certified the results of the Nov. 2 election.

The canvass found differences of only a few votes from the results reported following the election. None of the changes affected any of the races, the secretary of state said.

Although the 7,000 machines should be replaced, Miller said, this is the wrong time to ask lawmakers for new machines. So his office removed the appeal for new voting machines from the next two-year budget request.

"I wasn't going to stand in the middle of the Legislature in this economic crisis and say we need $18 million" to replace the machines, he said.

The oldest electronic voting machines in Nevada date to 2000, but most were bought in 2003- 2004.

Miller said he hopes Congress will fund the cost of replacing voting machines from the $400 million left in a Help America Vote Act fund.

Matt Griffin, deputy secretary of state for elections, said the state can buy a warranty from the voting machine manufacturer to replace broken parts. The warranty costs about $250,000 every other year.

Miller said that Gov.-elect Brian Sandoval has asked him to cut the budget of the secretary of state's office by more than the 10 percent already requested by Gov. Jim Gibbons.

The secretary of state declined to answer reporters' questions on how much the incoming governor wants to cut his budget, saying Sandoval requested he not divulge that information.

But Miller noted that previously he cut his office's spending by 21 percent and laid off employees when Gibbons asked him and other officials to reduce spending.

"We will work with the governor-elect with the same spirit of cooperation," Miller said.

Mary-Sarah Kinner, Sandoval's press secretary, said the governor-elect has asked the state budget office to consider all possible options to balance the state budget, except tax increases.

"That said, pursuant to state law, all budget documents are confidential until the budget is released on Jan. 24," Kinner added.

The state Economic Forum is expected to find next Wednesday that existing taxes and fees will produce about $5.4 billion in revenue over the next two years.

Current, two-year spending is $6.4 billion.

Some legislators have projected a $3 billion shortfall, a calculation that includes growth in social service spending, the loss of taxes that expire June 30 and the end of federal stimulus funding.

The Associated Press contributed to this story. Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3900.