Sevier borrows voting machines
Davis Commission agrees to deal after April fire in Richfield
Davis County commissioners recently approved the loan to Sevier County for the June primary elections, because of an April 27 fire at the Sevier County Administration Building in Richfield.
The fire was blamed on a worker who was welding a piece of equipment between two of the county buildings. The torch sparked a piece of glass fiber near the attic and heavily damaged the assessor's office and the state Division of Motor Vehicles office. The county's voting machines were damaged by smoke and soot and need to be cleaned.
The 2006 elections mark the first time that touch-screen, electronic voting machines are being used in all 29 Utah counties.
Davis commissioners agreed to loan 60 of the county's 833 voting machines to Sevier.
"We just want to help out our sister counties," said Davis County elections clerk Pat Beckstead. "Their machines are not going to be cleaned and ready for the June primary election."
Purchasing new machines to replace the damaged ones would have taken six to eight weeks, said Sevier County elections clerk Barbara Crowther.
Davis County clerk/auditor Steve Rawlings said his office plans to use only about 300 of the county's machines during the primary election because voting precincts have been consolidated.
Sevier officials are responsible for the machines until they are returned to Farmington, Beckstead said, and Diebold Election Systems, the Texas company that manufactures the machines, is on board with the loan agreement.
Crowther said she expects to have Sevier's voting machines back in operation before the November general election.
E-mail: jdougherty@desnews.com
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