Forty-one Florida counties are rushing to replace their voting machines, and they are doing it with little financial aid from the state and no helpful advice.

There is something that could be more embarrassing to Florida than the 2000 electoral fiasco -- bungling the 2002 election. With that in mind, the Legislature outlawed punch cards and offered to help pay for new voting technology. Yet the job ahead for most county elections officials is daunting.

Forty-one counties have to replace their voting machines with either new optical scanners or electronic equipment such as touch screens. The money provided by the state will cover only a fraction of the cost of touch screens, which are favored by larger counties, including Pinellas and Hillsborough.

While touch screens offer the promise of simplicity, there is also an unknown quality to the technology. Touch screens have been used in only one large election, in Riverside, Calif., but they performed well. Ready or not, the voting systems have to be up and running in 13 months for a statewide primary and, two months later, a gubernatorial election.

Much of the advice being offered is of little help. A commission headed by former Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter concluded that "not all punch card systems are so bad." Too late for Florida. On the other hand, touch screens are promising but "untested" and "confusing," according to a study by the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

It should be clear by now that technology alone is not going to save Florida from another embarrassing election. In fact, technology presents its own challenges.

Some local officials are starting to point fingers at the state, both for skimpy funding and slowness in approving new voting systems, which must be certified by the state Division of Elections before they can be used. To date, no touch-screen system has been accepted, although one could be certified in a week or so.

Election responsibilities have been an afterthought for Secretary of State Katherine Harris, who oversees the division. Only three employees are directly involved in testing voting systems. But that's enough to get the job done, says Clay Roberts, director of the Division of Elections.

Florida requires new voting technology to demonstrate its accuracy in a test election with a variety of ballots. Five companies have applied for certification of touch screens, but they have been slow to prepare their machines for testing. The companies appear to have put much of their energy into sales pitches and lobbying efforts. And it is still not certain that a few companies will be able to ramp up production and support to meet every county's needs in the next year.

Once a voting system has been certified, the state's responsibility ends. It is up to counties to choose a particular vendor, negotiate a price and write a contract that guarantees reliability and technical support. Those are not small issues.

In Hillsborough County, Supervisor of Elections Pam Iorio recommended touch screens, and the County Commission agreed to spend $12-million to purchase them. Yet the real work still lies ahead. Iorio has to wait for the touch-screen system she favors to be certified. Then she has to persuade the company to agree to a price within the county's budget and to provide the necessary technical support. She will need time to teach the new technology to poll workers and voters.

Pinellas County is moving more slowly. The County Commission has just begun to seek proposals for its voting system, and is operating without the involvement of Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark, who has withdrawn because her husband does work for ES&S, one of the voting machine companies. "The frustration is we have so little knowledge of these providers," said Gay Lancaster, interim county administrator.

The county has budgeted $15-million for touch screens, with the state kicking in only $1.3-million. If all goes as planned, Pinellas County would have time to test both the machinery and software in a local election in the spring. The experience has frustrated commissioners. "We certainly put local government under the gun," said County Commissioner Bob Stewart. "It's a very uncomfortable position to be in."

With little financial aid from the state and no helpful advice, counties will be rushing into big purchases of new technology with little time to work out the details. And none of that effort addresses potential problems with the accuracy of voter registration rolls and the proliferation of absentee ballots.

Florida had little choice but to make sweeping changes to its election machinery. But we may find that success will take more leadership, money and time.

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