By Patricia Breakey
Delhi News Bureau
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DELHI _ Delaware County Board of Election officials are considering eliminating some polling sites to save money on the purchase of new voting machines.
Election commissioners William Campbell and William Buccheri addressed the Delaware County Board of Supervisors at the board meeting Wednesday.
Campbell said that under the Help America Vote Act, the county is expecting to receive $478,244 to purchase voting equipment. The county has opted for the Imagecast optical scanner.
There are 40 polling sites in Delaware County, which would require the purchase of 42 machines at $11,500 each, for a cost of $483,000. Each machine can accommodate 4,000 voters, and the extra two machines would serve as backups.
Polling sites are unevenly distributed throughout the county. Campbell noted that Walton's five districts, which include 3,290 registered voters, vote at a central polling site, while in Andes, the 900 registered voters have two polling sites. The greatest number of polling sites is in Margaretville, where 2,015 voters have five polling places.
If polling sites can be eliminated, officials said, the money saved on voting machines can be applied to the additional $50,000 the county must pay for the software package to program the machines.
The county must also provide a computer workstation and two technicians, one Democrat and one Republican, to program each machine before it is delivered to the polling site. After each election, the machines must be returned to the Board of Elections in Delhi for the final, official count.
Two permanent part-time computer programmers will be hired to work on the machines, Campbell said.
In other board business, the board passed a resolution supporting the efforts of the Rural Three for Tobacco Free and Reality Check.
The groups are encouraging retailers to reduce tobacco advertising in their businesses and to eliminate tobacco advertising from areas likely to be seen by children, including ads placed near candy displays and wall spaces lower than three feet.
Amy Beveridge, director of the Rural Three for Tobacco Free Communities, said a survey of Delaware County residents in August indicated that a majority of local adults don't think tobacco advertising should be allowed on the outside or inside of buildings within 1,000 feet of schools, children's playgrounds and day-care facilities.
Jeff Beach, of Reality Check, said research shows that kids are more than twice as likely as adults to recall tobacco advertising.
In other action, the board approved a negative declaration on the State Environmental Quality Review for the installation and operation of the landfill-gas recovery and electricity-generating project at the county solid-waste facility.
The board determined that the project would not have a significant impact on the environment and is consistent with the county's solid-waste management plan.
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Patricia Breakey can be reached at 746-2894 or at stardelhi@stny.rr.com.
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