Related articles:

RTA databases to be released Key states' voting equipment is called faulty County releases databases of 3 elections With elections looming, doubts raised about electronic voting

Other articles by Erica Meltzer:

Vote set on county aid for desert water stations Plan sees benefits in less store parkingCounty hopes changes will ease vote count Incumbents Bronson, LaWall lead fundraising Six are seeking Pima County's four positions on CAP board Sole race could swing supervisor majority MLB vows to set up baseball academy Bronson, Brenner vie over county spending County animal-shelter renovations OK'd Big payoff forecast for White Sox plan

Trades/Construction
Water Tec
Dispatcher Driver/Transportation
DRIVERS Construction
ROR Construction
Residential Framing Carpenters Administrative & Professional
JEWISH FEDERATION
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Administrative & Professional
AVIVA, Inc
Executive Director Health Care
PAINTED HILLS PEDIATRICS
LPN, RN, MA Health Care
RLM Services, Inc
Pharmacist

If you question the accuracy of Pima County's vote tabulations, maybe you should do it yourself.

You could, if a plan approved by the Board of Supervisors to scan all 400,000 ballots in the next election and post them on-line ever comes to fruition.

A Pima County Superior Court judge ruled last month the county had to release the final databases from the 2006 primary and general elections, but not all databases from previous elections, as the Democrats requested in a lawsuit. The supervisors agreed to release the Regional Transportation Authority election databases after hearing from dozens of angry activists last week.

But Attorney Bill Risner, who represents the Democrats, has filed motions in Pima County Superior Court asking that election databases always be considered public record and that they be made available to the political parties within the window to challenge an election.

He also is seeking $792,900 in legal fees.

Rather than go along with that request, Supervisor Ramón Valadez suggested making scans of the actual paper ballots available online the night of the election.

"It's time we stop limiting the ability to determine the integrity of the election to computer gurus," Valadez said.

Valadez said the ballots should be organized by precinct to allow voters to check their own precinct — and hence their own ballot. The ballot itself does not contain any information that identifies the voter.

The supervisors voted 3-2 Tuesday to direct staff to develop a way to put the ballots online and oppose the Democratic Party's motion to amend the judge's findings, as well as oppose Risner's request for attorney's fees.

They also want the secretary of state to weigh in on the county's side in the legal battle.

Valadez and Supervisor Sharon Bronson, both Democrats, and Republican Supervisor Ann Day voted yes. Republican Supervisor Ray Carroll and Democratic Supervisor Richard Elías voted no.

Elías wanted the county to negotiate a settlement with the Democratic Party to find a way to release information in a timely manner to the political parties while protecting the security of the computer codes.

Valadez would not discuss that option from the dais, and his motion carried. Valadez said after the meeting that it was "time to stop feeding the lawyers" and that negotiating would generate more legal fees.

However, it is possible the issue will end up back in court. That's up to the judge after he reviews the motions from both sides.

In the meantime, it is not clear how the scanned ballots will be made available online quickly.

There are 468,886 registered voters in Pima County, and in the last presidential election, when there were 20,000 fewer registered voters, 367,492 people cast ballots.

The scanners that count votes do not capture an image of each ballot. The scanner would need some way to convert the ballot to a PDF as it is scanned.

And it is likely the Department of Justice will need to sign off on any county plan.

County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said he did not know how long it will take to figure out how to post the ballots, but it would not be available in time for the Feb. 5 presidential preference election.

The next scheduled countywide election is Sept. 2, the date of the primary for state and county offices.

Carroll said he didn't understand why the county would undertake an expensive and technologically difficult process rather than consider the requests from the Democratic Party.

"It seems like putting the cart before the horse," he said.

But Valadez said voters should be able to see and believe in the election results.

"What could be more transparent than that?" he said.