Apex Auctions has announced that it will be selling a large number of high-quality CNC machinery throughout September.
The first sale to close is a 104 lot auction of CNC and fabricating equipment available due to the closure of Bearing and Engineering Products Ltd.
The sale includes a virtually unused Okuma four-axis CNC lathe manufactured in 2007.
A 2002 Daewoo Puma CNC lathe, a Yang CNC lathe and a 2001 Dugard Eagle machining centre will also be open for bids.
A slightly smaller auction of 36 lots from Advanced Manufacturing Limited will also take place.
This sale consists of a selection of CNC and manual machine tools, including Yang, Eagle, Ajax, Taiwan, Takisawa and XYZ.
Following this auction there is 128 lots of equipment from Leecar Manufacturing, which ends on 16 September.
All machines in this sale are available due to retirement.
A DMG twin pallet horizontal machining centre is already attracting bids, as well as a Gildermeister CNC lathe and a Richmond vertical machining centre - all of which were manufactured between 2000 and 2003.
The auction that Apex said is attracting the most attention is the second phase of the equipment available from Flight Refuelling.
Lot one consists of a Makino CNC flexible manufacturing system, which was installed in 2000.
The FMS comprises two Makino A77 high-speed horizontal machining centres, a 16-position pallet system, transporter and load/unload stations, and a tool presetter.
Also attracting interest, according to Apex, are two Mazak Integrex high-powered CNC turning centres and a Mazak SQT CNC turning centre.
The auction ends on 18 September, with viewing of the equipment available by appointment only.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Apex offers gear manufacturing equipment
Apex Auctions has announced that it will be offering for sale a selection of large capacity gear manufacturing equipment in spring 2009.
The machinery is currently in operation at the Reid Gear Company, which is closing due to the retirement of its managing director, Tom Reid.
More than 280 lots of engineering equipment have been made available for sale, including: Maag SH450/500s heavy duty gear cutting machine; Maag SH350/500 heavy duty gear cutting machine; Maag SH100/140 gear cutting machine; Maag SH100 gear cutting machine.
All equipment will be available for auction online through the Apex Auctions website with the major machines available for immediate sale.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
The Tunnel: Seattle’s deep dig
Picture this: Washington’s jumbo ferry, the MV Tacoma, runs aground in downtown Seattle between Safeco and Qwest fields, hangs a left onto First Avenue and then starts burrowing underground and disappears.
Got that?
If you do, then you have a pretty good picture of the size and operation of the machine that will be used to drill a deep-bore tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct, said Ron Paananen of the state Department of Transportation.
Paananen is in charge of the overall $4.24 billion project to replace the viaduct with a 1.7-mile deep-bore tunnel, rebuild parts of the seawall and improve the Alaskan Way surface street with a promenade, as well as build a new surface street in the footprint of the viaduct after the structure is removed.
His main focus these days is the $1.9 billion tunnel and the machine that will dig it.
The tunnel boring machine will weigh 5,000 tons, about the same as a jumbo ferry, Paananen said. Its power plant will be 400 to 500 feet long, about the same length as a jumbo ferry. The diameter of the “drill bit” will be almost 55 feet.
Industry experts say it will take 18 months to two years to build that machine, at a cost well over $50 million.
“It would be one of the biggest machines ever made,” said Craig Bournes, product manager for Lovat Inc., a Toronto-based firm that manufactures tunnel boring machines. Lovat built two of the machines for King County’s Brightwater, a project that eventually will carry sewage in underground pipes from an inland treatment plant to a discharge point in north Puget Sound. Those machines are much smaller – less than 19 feet in diameter.
Lovat, which is now owned by Caterpillar, is one of several international firms interested in building the tunnel boring machine for whichever design-build team wins the contract to build the tunnel. Herrenknecht AG of Germany, The Robbins Co. of Ohio, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Shield Tunneling Association of Japan, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and WIRTH in Germany are others.
GOING DEEP
When the project is finished, the tunnel is expected to carry 85,000 vehicles a day. An additional 25,000 vehicles will be using the Alaskan Way surface street. The viaduct currently carries about 110,000 vehicles a day.
The tunnel boring machine for the Alaskan Way project will have to dig a single tunnel that is large enough for four lanes of traffic – two lanes stacked on top of two other lanes, each pair carrying traffic in opposite directions.
That single tunnel idea is relatively new. Originally, the DOT was going to build two tunnels – one for each direction of travel. But the technology has advanced to allow four lanes in a single tunnel, and that chops about $600 million off the cost, Paananen said.
This scale of tunnel is not unprecedented. For example, Interstate 80 in the San Francisco Bay area goes through a 1,700-foot long, double-deck tunnel through Yerba Buena Island.
Over the past few weeks, work crews in Seattle have been drilling holes every 100 to 400 feet along the eventual route of the tunnel to see what kind of soil the tunnel boring machine will encounter. The tunnel will be 1.7 miles long and will be as deep as 200 feet in some places, which means most of it will be below sea level. The tunnel has to be deep enough to get underneath a 60-foot-deep railroad tunnel that carries freight trains under downtown Seattle. There also are sewer lines closer to the surface.
Paananen said so far the soil samples show native glacial deposits of sand and gravel along most of the route, but there is fill material at the southern end of the tunnel.
Unlike an earlier proposal for a cut-and-cover tunnel that would have been built under Alaskan Way, the single deep-bore tunnel will be about 500 to 600 feet farther inland, farther away from the shoreline. The southern tunnel entrance will be at King Street and will follow under First Avenue until it gets about one block past the Pike Place Market. At Stewart Street it will veer further to the east and resurface at Denny Way onto Aurora Avenue North, also known as Highway 99.
That means the Battery Street Tunnel probably will be closed and filled in, Paananen said. Its fate lies with Seattle city officials, he said.
SLOW GOING
Tunnel boring machines move at a pace of about 2 meters (6 feet) an hour and are guided by laser. The face of the machine chews up the soil and rock to that 6-foot distance and seals off a chamber at the front of the machine.
Rails will be laid behind the machine. The ground-up dirt, rock and other materials are turned into a slurry and are either piped out behind the machine or are carried out on conveyor belts or rail cars for disposal, Bournes said.
Thereafter, prefabricated concrete sections are bolted into place to form a ring around the circumference of the tunnel. That takes about two hours, although once the work gets under way it could take less time, he said. Then, the machine moves forward to grind up the next 6-foot segment.
It takes about a dozen workers to operate the boring machine, but there are many more workers providing support.
The machine will inch forward underground for all 9,000 feet, emerging at the north portal near Seattle Center like a giant sandworm.
After the tunnel is built, the double-decked traffic lanes will be built.
Paananen said it will take four or five months just to assemble the tunnel boring machine on the lots that have been cleared at the south end of the project to serve as a staging area for construction work.
The state will be buying property and getting easements from each of the property owners so the state can tunnel under their properties.
WORK STARTED
Work on the Alaskan Way project already is well under way. Two Seattle City Light electrical transmission lines that are attached to the viaduct are being relocated. Most people don’t realize that an earthquake that is severe enough to bring down the elevated structure would disrupt much more than traffic. Two-thirds of downtown Seattle would lose power if the viaduct were to collapse.
“It’s not just transportation that’s vulnerable,” Paananen said.
New power lines are being buried in a trench to the east of the viaduct and the switch-over will take place this fall. Other utility lines also are being moved.
A tunnel is better able to withstand an earthquake than an elevated structure, but regardless of which alternative was built, it will have to meet current seismic resistant standards.
The DOT also plans to seek contractors, probably in October, to tear down the southern end of the viaduct, the portion between Holgate and King streets. That is an estimated $300 million job.
It will be nearly two years – mid-2011 – until actual construction work begins on the deep-bore tunnel, but the legislative green light has set in motion more preparatory work.
In September, the DOT will send out a request for qualifications, which is basically a call for engineering firms and contractors to show that they can team up and have the wherewithal to design and build the tunnel.
“We know there are teams of engineers and contractors forming already,” Paananen said.
By the end of October, the DOT expects to announce which three or four teams have been chosen to proceed to the next phase of the project, and compete for a contract that could pay them between $800 million and $1.3 billion, he said.
Each of the finalists will be paid to further refine their proposals, and that will take the better part of a year, Paananen said. The winner of the contract probably won’t be chosen until September 2010.
During the legislative session that ended in late April, DOT officials told lawmakers they needed approval for the deep-bore tunnel concept because they needed to order a tunnel boring machine as soon as possible so they could get on a yearlong waiting list.
http://www.thenewstribune.com/local/story/822857.html
Friday, July 24, 2009
Used large horizontal honing machines offered
Machine tool dealer is offering two large Delapena horizontal honing machines for sale from a site in the UK at GBP 40,000 and 45,000 each.
Gribben Davies Machine Tools have for sale - from site in the UK - two horizontal honing machine tools.
One is a Delapena HHM20 6000mm horizontal honing machine, built in the early 1980s.
Price is GBP 40,000.00 (plus VAT if applicable) - net ex site.
The second Delapena machine is a HHM30, 9000mm horizontal honing model, built in the early 1980s.
Price is GBP 45,000.00 (plus VAT If applicable) - net ex site.
Gribben Davies Machine Tools have for sale - from site in the UK - two horizontal honing machine tools.
One is a Delapena HHM20 6000mm horizontal honing machine, built in the early 1980s.
Price is GBP 40,000.00 (plus VAT if applicable) - net ex site.
The second Delapena machine is a HHM30, 9000mm horizontal honing model, built in the early 1980s.
Price is GBP 45,000.00 (plus VAT If applicable) - net ex site.
Used water jet cutting machines are on the Web
Manufacturer of water jet abrasive cutting machines - also used for coating removal - has posted used machines on its Web site.
In the USA, a leading manufacturer of ultra-high pressure waterjet and abrasivejet systems for precision cutting, coating removal and surface preparation, Jet Edge, is now posting used waterjet equipment for sale on its Web site.
Jet Edge's used equipment inventory includes ultra-high pressure intensifier pumps, motion systems, accessories and mobile cleaning and cutting equipment.
* About Jet Edge - Jet Edge is an ultra-high pressure waterjet technology company with a global presence.
Jet Edge's primary business includes designing, engineering, manufacturing and servicing ultra-high pressure intensifier pumps, precision waterjet and abrasive waterjet cutting systems, and surface preparation and coating removal products, as well as high-pressure cutting heads and related products, parts and components.
Jet Edge products are used in a wide range of industries, from the world's leading airlines to automotive, aerospace and industrial manufacturers and machine and job shops.
Headquartered in St.
Michael, Minnesota, USA, the company has distribution partners throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, and serves customers in more than 100 countries.
http://www.manufacturingtalk.com/news/jee/jee124.html
In the USA, a leading manufacturer of ultra-high pressure waterjet and abrasivejet systems for precision cutting, coating removal and surface preparation, Jet Edge, is now posting used waterjet equipment for sale on its Web site.
Jet Edge's used equipment inventory includes ultra-high pressure intensifier pumps, motion systems, accessories and mobile cleaning and cutting equipment.
* About Jet Edge - Jet Edge is an ultra-high pressure waterjet technology company with a global presence.
Jet Edge's primary business includes designing, engineering, manufacturing and servicing ultra-high pressure intensifier pumps, precision waterjet and abrasive waterjet cutting systems, and surface preparation and coating removal products, as well as high-pressure cutting heads and related products, parts and components.
Jet Edge products are used in a wide range of industries, from the world's leading airlines to automotive, aerospace and industrial manufacturers and machine and job shops.
Headquartered in St.
Michael, Minnesota, USA, the company has distribution partners throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, and serves customers in more than 100 countries.
http://www.manufacturingtalk.com/news/jee/jee124.html
Friday, July 17, 2009
Concepts NREC Signs Global Machine Tool Partnership with Hermle
White River Junction, Vt. and Gosheim, Germany (PRWEB) July 16, 2009 -- Concepts NREC, a world leader in turbomachinery design, engineering and manufacturing, today announced it has signed a global partnership agreement with Maschinenfabrik Berthold Hermle AG (Hermle) of Gosheim, Germany, in which Hermle will be a global machine tool partner with Concepts NREC offering the MAX-PAC family of computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software to its machine customers worldwide. Original equipment manufacturers and machining organizations will benefit from the two companies' combined expertise in the design and machining of 5-axis turbomachinery products.
Based in Gosheim, Germany, with North American headquarters in Franklin, Wis., Hermle provides manufacturing solutions, applications assistance, customer training and service. More than 18,000 Hermle machines are installed worldwide, and Hermle operates via a well-developed network of company representatives in over 50 countries, which includes 30 North American locations in the United States and Canada operated by Hermle Machine Company. Hermle's precision machine tools are used to manufacture products in many industries with turbomachinery applications. Concepts NREC representatives will work with Hermle to implement its software sales, support and distribution processes.
Michael Bisser, departmental director sales, of Hermle said, "We are pleased to partner with Concepts NREC. It is a good opportunity for Hermle to strengthen its solutions for the sophisticated requirements of the turbomachinery industry by offering a value-added software system and our machines through one source. We provide some of the best machine tools and CAM software products available, and because Concepts NREC's 5-axis machining software is proven, forming this partnership to offer it to our customers was the next best logical step for us."
The Concepts NREC and Hermle partnership agreement opens new sales markets into additional countries for Concepts NREC while filling a capabilities niche for Hermle.
"Hermle's extensive manufacturing reach, reputation for excellence plus its experience in solution sales makes it an ideal partner for Concepts NREC," said Mike Dergance, director - global software sales for Concepts NREC. "Turbomachinery manufacturers using Hermle machines tools and needing 5-axis capabilities will benefit from implementing our MAX-PAC manufacturing software. We anticipate a mutually beneficial partnership with Hermle."
Concepts NREC's CAM products include the MAX-PAC family: MAX-5™, MAX-AB™ and MAX-SI™ for advanced manufacturing of turbomachinery impellers and related components.
About Hermle
Maschinenfabrik Berthold Hermle AG manufactures and markets milling machines and machining centers worldwide. The Company's products are used for the machining of tools, molds and series-produced parts in a variety of sectors, including medical technology, optics, aviation, turbomachinery, automotive and racing, as well as in tool and mold making. Hermle was founded in 1938. Hermle AG operated through its eight subsidiaries, three of five wholly owned, as well as three affiliated companies based in Germany, Switzerland, Russia, the Netherlands, Italy and the United States. Maschinenfabrik Berthold Hermle AG is headquartered at Industriestrasse 8-12, Gosheim, 78559 Germany. Telephone: 
+49 (...
. Facsimile: +49 (0)7426 1309. For more information, go to: www.hermle.de.
About Concepts NREC
Concepts NREC is a leading worldwide turbomachinery design, engineering and development organization as well as a provider of turbomachinery design/analysis software and education, with a staff of over 100 professionals at its facilities in Wilder, VT, and Woburn, MA, as well as representation worldwide. For over a half century, Concepts NREC has provided manufacturers, users, government agencies and the engineering community with technology tools, services and products that have met their needs, helped achieve their goals and aided to develop and produce some of the world's most advanced turbomachinery products. Concepts NREC is headquartered at 217 Billings Farm Road, White River Junction, VT 05001-9486. Telephone: 
802-296-2321. Facsimile: 802-296-2325. For more information, go to: www.ConceptsNREC.com.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/ConceptsNREC/Hermle/prweb2647484.htm
Election officials face impossible mandated task
Posted: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 9:40 pm
By GLENDA H. CAUDLE
Special Features Editor
Apparently some of Tennessee’s lawmakers “just don’t get it” — the seemingly insurmountable hurdle they have placed in the path of election commissions across Tennessee who, it turns out, “just can’t get it.” That is the assessment of Obion County election officials and county commissioners faced with what appears to be an impossible task imposed upon them by legislators in Nashville.
It all comes down to a specialized type of voting machine. Fourteen senators in Nashville — 13 Democrats and a lone Republican — want all 95 county election commissions to have optical scan voting machines and paper ballots in place for the 2010 elections. Election officials say that is an impossibility because machines that meet the standards imposed by the Voter Confidence Act passed in 2008 do not exist. In other words, they can’t get the equipment they are required to have to be in compliance with election law. They want a delay in implementing the law until the 2012 voting cycle.
The problem is, a slim majority of the state’s senators appear to be either unwilling or unable to understand the problem, according to local officials concerned not only about the issue of compliance but also with the looming questions of voting accuracy, the integrity of the voting process and the expense for Obion County.
The Obion County Legislative Body is poised to address the problem, with one of their members defining it is an “unfunded mandate,” in its session Monday. An agenda item for that meeting is consideration of a letter of support for the Obion County Election Commission as that body looks into a possible court challenge to the 2010 implementation of the Voter Confidence Act, according to Ralph Puckett, chairman of the county court.
Background
The Voter Confidence Act, which passed both houses of the General Assembly with “broad bipartisan support” in 2008, according to Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett, requires that all 95 counties in the Volunteer State use optical scan voting machines and paper ballots no later than the November 2010 election cycle. The act is very specific, Hargett says, mandating the counties use only certified equipment that meets the security and reliability standards adopted by the federal Election Assistance Commission in 2005.
The problem for Obion County and the other 94 such entities in Tennessee is, there are no vendors certified to sell equipment meeting those standards.
“Because the commission’s certification process typically takes about 18-24 months,” added Hargett in a recent press release, “I’m not confident that a vendor could complete that process in time to have equipment in place for the November 2010 elections.”
The secretary of state describes the situation as a “Catch-22 for county governments.”
“Whether counties acquire new equipment or not, they will still not be in compliance with the act,” Hargett says.
A bill to address the problem by delaying implementation of the act until 2012, when the specified equipment might conceivably be available, passed the state House of Representatives recently, again with “broad bipartisan support.” All Republicans voted for the bill, as did a majority of Democrats who were present to vote, including Judy Barker of Union City. Mrs. Barker, Obion County election commission member Rob Joyner says, was in close contact with local election officials and commissioners to see how the bill would affect Obion County and her vote reflected local concerns.
However, the legislation fell a vote short of passage in the Senate June 18. Seventeen votes were required to provide for the implementation delay. Only 16 were recorded — all Republican. Thirteen Senate Democrats, including Sen. Roy Herron, who represents area citizens in District 24, voted against passage of the Senate bill. One Republican teamed with Democrats, and two Republicans were absent for the vote. And so the law calling for use of the non-existent scanners still stands — and still plagues local voting officials and county commissioners.
Sen. Herron was unavailable for comment when The Messenger sought to make contact Tuesday afternoon at his Nashville senatorial office and this morning at both that office and his Dresden law firm.
Local concerns
Obion County replaced its old pull-lever voting machines with new touch screen machines in June 2002, when 39 of the systems were purchased at a cost of $191,995. Four years later, in June 2006, 13 touch screen machines for handicapped voters were purchased. The State of Tennessee reimbursed Obion County for the entire cost of the most recent purchases and in 2006 — four years after the fact —finally ponied up $185,540 in partial reimbursement for the standard equipment purchase of 2002.
Those new machines — which will have been in place only eight years for the standard machines and four years for the machines adapted for handicapped voters by the 2010 election cycle — will no longer be acceptable, once the Voter Confidence Act goes into effect.
That fact alone is enough to leave members of the Obion County Legislative Body with less than positive feelings about the law now being enforced by an actual minority of legislators in Nashville. They are even more disturbed, however, to find they must replace those machines with equipment that does not even exist.
Supporters of the original act say the machines will make it easier to conduct recounts and verify election results since there will be paper ballots fed into a vote-counting machine. But local election officials are far from reassured even on that point.
Last year, Joyner and Obion County Legislative Body chairman Ralph Puckett went to Hickman, Ky., to see how voting officials there handle paper ballots in a set up that is not certified to meet the standards of the Voter Confidence Act but is, nevertheless, an optical scan system similar to one that would have to be used in Tennessee under the act’s provisions. A representative of the manufacturer was training poll workers in Hickman and allowed the Tennessee guests to have access.
In observing the way paper ballots were handled, the local officials spotted several areas for concern.
As Joyner understands the procedure, it would function in this way: A voter would walk in the door, make contact with a local election official and present the identification called for. The voter would then be presented with one or more paper ballots, depending on how many issues and offices are involved in the election cycle.
Under the present system in place in Obion County, according to Joyner, poll workers “program” the touch screen voting machine when the voter tells them what election he wishes to take part in and the appropriate ballot with all voting options relevant to that voter’s area of residence “pops up” on the screen. Dozens of candidates and issues can thus be addressed privately and with a minimum of effort and confusion on the voter’s part. If necessary, Joyner says, printers can be purchased to connect to the machines and provide a “paper trail” some feel is essential.
Elections using paper ballots, by contrast, would require the voter to juggle multiple paper ballots for marking with a pencil, depending on the number of candidates and variety of issues at stake in the election.
In the scenario Joyner describes for the future, once the potential voter collects the appropriate ballots from a poll worker, he will be escorted to a table and provided with a pencil for marking the ballot. If the voter makes a mistake, he must appeal to the poll worker for a fresh ballot, and the “spoiled” ballot must be placed in a special ballot box before a new one can be dispensed. Then the marking process begins again. The potential for “wasting” numerous paper ballots and for introducing irritants into the system not only for the troubled voter but also for the poll worker and other voters who are waiting to use the system looms large, Joyner says.
By contrast, under the present system, the voter can retrace his steps on the touch screen and correct any selection he may have made in error. Voters are even urged by prompts on the screen to review their ballots and make sure they reflect their wishes before they submit them for a count.
But suppose, Joyner says, the paper ballot voter is satisfied with his votes and proceeds to feed them — one ballot at a time — into the optical scanning vote “reader” being required by the recent events in Nashville. Suppose, further, that the machine is unable to read the ballot, or a particular selection on the ballot, because of an indistinct mark or because a selection was not “filled in thoroughly” or because the voter appeared to have erred in some other way. That ballot will simply be “spit out,” and the voter will lose all his votes on that ballot without any possibility of correcting the problem, since there is no way to trace individual voters and offer them a chance to clarify their wishes.
Joyner says, further, that he is unaware of any effort to accommodate handicapped voters using the new system — another potential problem.
And, finally, the state has agreed to cover the cost of only one ballot reader for each polling place, meaning voters will have to wait their turn to feed in their ballot/ballots.
Expense falling on the shoulders of local government already concerned about their budgets are also part of the scenario confronting county commissioners. Will the single machine to be provided by the state for each polling place be sufficient for the needs of the voters, and if it is not, who will pay for additional machines?
Danny Jowers, chairman of the Obion County Budget Committee, said he is puzzled that proponents of the new paper balloting system are pushing so hard for its implementation. “The members of the Budget Committee see this as an unfunded mandate on the county. It could add $15,000 to $20,000 to each election. If (state government) will only pay for one machine per precinct, who will pay for the rest? The cost associated with it is what I am concerned about. They told us the last machines (those currently in use in Obion County) were the best thing going, so now, why — all of a sudden — are these so bad?
“I know what our senator is saying about it and the only thing that puzzles me is, all we are asking for is a two-year delay until we could get the machines and find out how much it would cost, but for some reason, they want to ram it through. That has me puzzled. I don’t know what the truth is.”
“It’s just throwing money away,” Puckett says of the push to implement the system by 2010. “Another thing (to be concerned about) is the paper ballot. Only a few — maybe two companies — make the paper that can be used and it is expensive. In even a smaller election, it might cost about $30,000 (in local funds) to hold that election, because you have to have 110 percent (the number of paper ballots that must be on hand, to adjust for ballot spoilage) of the number of voters. Only about 25 percent (of the eligible voters) actually vote, except in a presidential election, so you waste a huge amount. And if there is a long ballot, with three or four sheets, that could cost three or four times that figure and the county has to buy the ballots. If the state wants to shove this down our throat, why don’t they furnish money to buy the ballots?
“When this was first presented, the fiscal review committee tagged it as no expense to the county, so it passed easily, but then the final bill says the counties have to buy the ballots. In Weakley County, I read a report they put $48,000 in the budget for only one election.”
Costs for ballot storage and new training for poll workers will also fall on Tennessee’s counties.
To add to the gloomy picture, local officials trying to meet the specifications of the act say they can see problems with elderly voters or voters with some difficulty with motor control or with vision problems having to feed ballots into the scanning machines. If their well-meaning efforts to vote instead create a paper jam or if some other problem affects a machine and it “goes down,” leaving a precinct without an approved means of recording the votes until a new machine can be brought in or repairs made, “that could really slow us down,” an official said.
Why change?
The concern of the senators who are insisting that election officials must have the new machines in place in time for the 2010 elections appears to be rooted in a fear of “conspiracies” designed to interfere in the balloting process, according to a spokesman for the Obion County Election Commission.
Joyner said those who want to abandon the equipment now being used say the machines are not trustworthy and could be “jimmied.” Joyner adds that even if the new paper ballot voting machines were available, the paper ballots would be counted by a computer system and the system would still be open to fraud of the same type the paper ballot proponents say they fear. In addition, the new paper ballot system would not offer any safeguard against the “discovery” of containers of suspicious paper ballots supposedly “rescued” from an automobile or some other location at the last minute. Similar scenarios have come into play in numerous elections in the past and have been the cause of heated political battles.
The system currently in place in Obion County has a fail-safe feature which will not allow voting to be “closed out” until all the boxes from voting precincts have been accounted for. This eliminates the chance of “missing” a box or of contention over whether a “discovered” box should be accepted. Such safeguards may not be part of the new system, but it is difficult to know since no such systems exist at this point, opponents of the mandated 2010 change point out.
Even if these possibilities for a potential “gaming the system” were solved by the use of the new voting systems being required, the problem of acquiring the machines remains as the paramount obstacle to conducting legal elections in 2010, thanks to the senators’ refusal to delay implementation of the act.
Joyner points out, further, that some of those who profess to favor the 2010 implementation of the act because they are concerned about the possibility of fraud using current voting machines are unwilling to support efforts to eliminate fraud in other areas.
A letter from Chris Devaney, chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party, to State House Minority Leader Gary Odom, a Democrat, echoes those charges and calls on Democrats to support legislation that is being held up in the General Assembly by that party. Specifically, Devaney wants Democrats to agree to drop their opposition to:
• HB.1838 — Requiring the county registrar to verify proof of citizenship for voter registration and identify verification when voting.
• HB.0779 — Requiring the State Coordinator of Elections to promulgate rules to make it easier for overseas military voters to return their absentee ballots.
• HB.0639 — Requiring a voter to present photo ID to vote, and allowing voters without proper ID to cast provisional ballots.
What next?
In a meeting July 6, the Obion County Budget Committee voted to support the filing of a suit by the local election commission to delay implementation of the Voter Confidence Act until 2012. County commissioners will have the opportunity to add their support to that action Monday.
Meanwhile, county attorney Steve Conley of Union City is hopeful that the situation can be resolved by the secretary of state.
The legislature is in recess and Conley says he has not been in contact with either Rep. Barker, who supported the delay in implementation, or Sen. Herron, who opposed it.
“There is a November 2010 deadline, so there is no urgency to file at this point,” he says. “My advice is not to rush into a lawsuit if there are other avenues. At this point, I am simply working with county attorneys and the secretary of state’s office and hoping to have the secretary of state take care of this for us. But, if not, we will be working hard to get the legislature to pass a bill delaying implementation. Secretary of State Hargett has more authority than any county attorney or collective group of attorneys, and he is reaching out to legislators. His office is over the state division of elections and if that office is saying the equipment is not available, I don’t see how the legislature will have any choice but to delay.”
If those avenues fail, however, Obion County officials want to be ready to respond and they are finding other counties share their concerns.
Officials in Sullivan County in East Tennessee have unofficially expressed interest in joining a possible suit to delay implementation of the act, and local officials say they believe other counties may come on board, as well.
http://www.nwtntoday.com/news.php?viewStory=28992
By GLENDA H. CAUDLE
Special Features Editor
Apparently some of Tennessee’s lawmakers “just don’t get it” — the seemingly insurmountable hurdle they have placed in the path of election commissions across Tennessee who, it turns out, “just can’t get it.” That is the assessment of Obion County election officials and county commissioners faced with what appears to be an impossible task imposed upon them by legislators in Nashville.
It all comes down to a specialized type of voting machine. Fourteen senators in Nashville — 13 Democrats and a lone Republican — want all 95 county election commissions to have optical scan voting machines and paper ballots in place for the 2010 elections. Election officials say that is an impossibility because machines that meet the standards imposed by the Voter Confidence Act passed in 2008 do not exist. In other words, they can’t get the equipment they are required to have to be in compliance with election law. They want a delay in implementing the law until the 2012 voting cycle.
The problem is, a slim majority of the state’s senators appear to be either unwilling or unable to understand the problem, according to local officials concerned not only about the issue of compliance but also with the looming questions of voting accuracy, the integrity of the voting process and the expense for Obion County.
The Obion County Legislative Body is poised to address the problem, with one of their members defining it is an “unfunded mandate,” in its session Monday. An agenda item for that meeting is consideration of a letter of support for the Obion County Election Commission as that body looks into a possible court challenge to the 2010 implementation of the Voter Confidence Act, according to Ralph Puckett, chairman of the county court.
Background
The Voter Confidence Act, which passed both houses of the General Assembly with “broad bipartisan support” in 2008, according to Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett, requires that all 95 counties in the Volunteer State use optical scan voting machines and paper ballots no later than the November 2010 election cycle. The act is very specific, Hargett says, mandating the counties use only certified equipment that meets the security and reliability standards adopted by the federal Election Assistance Commission in 2005.
The problem for Obion County and the other 94 such entities in Tennessee is, there are no vendors certified to sell equipment meeting those standards.
“Because the commission’s certification process typically takes about 18-24 months,” added Hargett in a recent press release, “I’m not confident that a vendor could complete that process in time to have equipment in place for the November 2010 elections.”
The secretary of state describes the situation as a “Catch-22 for county governments.”
“Whether counties acquire new equipment or not, they will still not be in compliance with the act,” Hargett says.
A bill to address the problem by delaying implementation of the act until 2012, when the specified equipment might conceivably be available, passed the state House of Representatives recently, again with “broad bipartisan support.” All Republicans voted for the bill, as did a majority of Democrats who were present to vote, including Judy Barker of Union City. Mrs. Barker, Obion County election commission member Rob Joyner says, was in close contact with local election officials and commissioners to see how the bill would affect Obion County and her vote reflected local concerns.
However, the legislation fell a vote short of passage in the Senate June 18. Seventeen votes were required to provide for the implementation delay. Only 16 were recorded — all Republican. Thirteen Senate Democrats, including Sen. Roy Herron, who represents area citizens in District 24, voted against passage of the Senate bill. One Republican teamed with Democrats, and two Republicans were absent for the vote. And so the law calling for use of the non-existent scanners still stands — and still plagues local voting officials and county commissioners.
Sen. Herron was unavailable for comment when The Messenger sought to make contact Tuesday afternoon at his Nashville senatorial office and this morning at both that office and his Dresden law firm.
Local concerns
Obion County replaced its old pull-lever voting machines with new touch screen machines in June 2002, when 39 of the systems were purchased at a cost of $191,995. Four years later, in June 2006, 13 touch screen machines for handicapped voters were purchased. The State of Tennessee reimbursed Obion County for the entire cost of the most recent purchases and in 2006 — four years after the fact —finally ponied up $185,540 in partial reimbursement for the standard equipment purchase of 2002.
Those new machines — which will have been in place only eight years for the standard machines and four years for the machines adapted for handicapped voters by the 2010 election cycle — will no longer be acceptable, once the Voter Confidence Act goes into effect.
That fact alone is enough to leave members of the Obion County Legislative Body with less than positive feelings about the law now being enforced by an actual minority of legislators in Nashville. They are even more disturbed, however, to find they must replace those machines with equipment that does not even exist.
Supporters of the original act say the machines will make it easier to conduct recounts and verify election results since there will be paper ballots fed into a vote-counting machine. But local election officials are far from reassured even on that point.
Last year, Joyner and Obion County Legislative Body chairman Ralph Puckett went to Hickman, Ky., to see how voting officials there handle paper ballots in a set up that is not certified to meet the standards of the Voter Confidence Act but is, nevertheless, an optical scan system similar to one that would have to be used in Tennessee under the act’s provisions. A representative of the manufacturer was training poll workers in Hickman and allowed the Tennessee guests to have access.
In observing the way paper ballots were handled, the local officials spotted several areas for concern.
As Joyner understands the procedure, it would function in this way: A voter would walk in the door, make contact with a local election official and present the identification called for. The voter would then be presented with one or more paper ballots, depending on how many issues and offices are involved in the election cycle.
Under the present system in place in Obion County, according to Joyner, poll workers “program” the touch screen voting machine when the voter tells them what election he wishes to take part in and the appropriate ballot with all voting options relevant to that voter’s area of residence “pops up” on the screen. Dozens of candidates and issues can thus be addressed privately and with a minimum of effort and confusion on the voter’s part. If necessary, Joyner says, printers can be purchased to connect to the machines and provide a “paper trail” some feel is essential.
Elections using paper ballots, by contrast, would require the voter to juggle multiple paper ballots for marking with a pencil, depending on the number of candidates and variety of issues at stake in the election.
In the scenario Joyner describes for the future, once the potential voter collects the appropriate ballots from a poll worker, he will be escorted to a table and provided with a pencil for marking the ballot. If the voter makes a mistake, he must appeal to the poll worker for a fresh ballot, and the “spoiled” ballot must be placed in a special ballot box before a new one can be dispensed. Then the marking process begins again. The potential for “wasting” numerous paper ballots and for introducing irritants into the system not only for the troubled voter but also for the poll worker and other voters who are waiting to use the system looms large, Joyner says.
By contrast, under the present system, the voter can retrace his steps on the touch screen and correct any selection he may have made in error. Voters are even urged by prompts on the screen to review their ballots and make sure they reflect their wishes before they submit them for a count.
But suppose, Joyner says, the paper ballot voter is satisfied with his votes and proceeds to feed them — one ballot at a time — into the optical scanning vote “reader” being required by the recent events in Nashville. Suppose, further, that the machine is unable to read the ballot, or a particular selection on the ballot, because of an indistinct mark or because a selection was not “filled in thoroughly” or because the voter appeared to have erred in some other way. That ballot will simply be “spit out,” and the voter will lose all his votes on that ballot without any possibility of correcting the problem, since there is no way to trace individual voters and offer them a chance to clarify their wishes.
Joyner says, further, that he is unaware of any effort to accommodate handicapped voters using the new system — another potential problem.
And, finally, the state has agreed to cover the cost of only one ballot reader for each polling place, meaning voters will have to wait their turn to feed in their ballot/ballots.
Expense falling on the shoulders of local government already concerned about their budgets are also part of the scenario confronting county commissioners. Will the single machine to be provided by the state for each polling place be sufficient for the needs of the voters, and if it is not, who will pay for additional machines?
Danny Jowers, chairman of the Obion County Budget Committee, said he is puzzled that proponents of the new paper balloting system are pushing so hard for its implementation. “The members of the Budget Committee see this as an unfunded mandate on the county. It could add $15,000 to $20,000 to each election. If (state government) will only pay for one machine per precinct, who will pay for the rest? The cost associated with it is what I am concerned about. They told us the last machines (those currently in use in Obion County) were the best thing going, so now, why — all of a sudden — are these so bad?
“I know what our senator is saying about it and the only thing that puzzles me is, all we are asking for is a two-year delay until we could get the machines and find out how much it would cost, but for some reason, they want to ram it through. That has me puzzled. I don’t know what the truth is.”
“It’s just throwing money away,” Puckett says of the push to implement the system by 2010. “Another thing (to be concerned about) is the paper ballot. Only a few — maybe two companies — make the paper that can be used and it is expensive. In even a smaller election, it might cost about $30,000 (in local funds) to hold that election, because you have to have 110 percent (the number of paper ballots that must be on hand, to adjust for ballot spoilage) of the number of voters. Only about 25 percent (of the eligible voters) actually vote, except in a presidential election, so you waste a huge amount. And if there is a long ballot, with three or four sheets, that could cost three or four times that figure and the county has to buy the ballots. If the state wants to shove this down our throat, why don’t they furnish money to buy the ballots?
“When this was first presented, the fiscal review committee tagged it as no expense to the county, so it passed easily, but then the final bill says the counties have to buy the ballots. In Weakley County, I read a report they put $48,000 in the budget for only one election.”
Costs for ballot storage and new training for poll workers will also fall on Tennessee’s counties.
To add to the gloomy picture, local officials trying to meet the specifications of the act say they can see problems with elderly voters or voters with some difficulty with motor control or with vision problems having to feed ballots into the scanning machines. If their well-meaning efforts to vote instead create a paper jam or if some other problem affects a machine and it “goes down,” leaving a precinct without an approved means of recording the votes until a new machine can be brought in or repairs made, “that could really slow us down,” an official said.
Why change?
The concern of the senators who are insisting that election officials must have the new machines in place in time for the 2010 elections appears to be rooted in a fear of “conspiracies” designed to interfere in the balloting process, according to a spokesman for the Obion County Election Commission.
Joyner said those who want to abandon the equipment now being used say the machines are not trustworthy and could be “jimmied.” Joyner adds that even if the new paper ballot voting machines were available, the paper ballots would be counted by a computer system and the system would still be open to fraud of the same type the paper ballot proponents say they fear. In addition, the new paper ballot system would not offer any safeguard against the “discovery” of containers of suspicious paper ballots supposedly “rescued” from an automobile or some other location at the last minute. Similar scenarios have come into play in numerous elections in the past and have been the cause of heated political battles.
The system currently in place in Obion County has a fail-safe feature which will not allow voting to be “closed out” until all the boxes from voting precincts have been accounted for. This eliminates the chance of “missing” a box or of contention over whether a “discovered” box should be accepted. Such safeguards may not be part of the new system, but it is difficult to know since no such systems exist at this point, opponents of the mandated 2010 change point out.
Even if these possibilities for a potential “gaming the system” were solved by the use of the new voting systems being required, the problem of acquiring the machines remains as the paramount obstacle to conducting legal elections in 2010, thanks to the senators’ refusal to delay implementation of the act.
Joyner points out, further, that some of those who profess to favor the 2010 implementation of the act because they are concerned about the possibility of fraud using current voting machines are unwilling to support efforts to eliminate fraud in other areas.
A letter from Chris Devaney, chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party, to State House Minority Leader Gary Odom, a Democrat, echoes those charges and calls on Democrats to support legislation that is being held up in the General Assembly by that party. Specifically, Devaney wants Democrats to agree to drop their opposition to:
• HB.1838 — Requiring the county registrar to verify proof of citizenship for voter registration and identify verification when voting.
• HB.0779 — Requiring the State Coordinator of Elections to promulgate rules to make it easier for overseas military voters to return their absentee ballots.
• HB.0639 — Requiring a voter to present photo ID to vote, and allowing voters without proper ID to cast provisional ballots.
What next?
In a meeting July 6, the Obion County Budget Committee voted to support the filing of a suit by the local election commission to delay implementation of the Voter Confidence Act until 2012. County commissioners will have the opportunity to add their support to that action Monday.
Meanwhile, county attorney Steve Conley of Union City is hopeful that the situation can be resolved by the secretary of state.
The legislature is in recess and Conley says he has not been in contact with either Rep. Barker, who supported the delay in implementation, or Sen. Herron, who opposed it.
“There is a November 2010 deadline, so there is no urgency to file at this point,” he says. “My advice is not to rush into a lawsuit if there are other avenues. At this point, I am simply working with county attorneys and the secretary of state’s office and hoping to have the secretary of state take care of this for us. But, if not, we will be working hard to get the legislature to pass a bill delaying implementation. Secretary of State Hargett has more authority than any county attorney or collective group of attorneys, and he is reaching out to legislators. His office is over the state division of elections and if that office is saying the equipment is not available, I don’t see how the legislature will have any choice but to delay.”
If those avenues fail, however, Obion County officials want to be ready to respond and they are finding other counties share their concerns.
Officials in Sullivan County in East Tennessee have unofficially expressed interest in joining a possible suit to delay implementation of the act, and local officials say they believe other counties may come on board, as well.
http://www.nwtntoday.com/news.php?viewStory=28992
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Screening Cuts Would Hurt Most In Rural States Like Arkansas, Group Says
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas and other rural states will get hit particularly hard by proposed cuts in Medicare for "advanced medical imaging" such as MRIs, supporters of breast cancer screening said Monday.
Worse, the change proposed by President Barack Obama's administration would cut back on prevention and greatly increase the cost of curing many problems, said radiologist Dr. Steven Harms of the Breast Center in Fayetteville. White House spokesmen had no immediate reaction to the remarks Monday.
The proposed rate is based on an assumption of how much an imaging machine is used. The more a machine is used, the more private paying customers pay the expense of the machine, in Medicare's formula. The current rates assumed for these machines is 50 percent, or five hours out of a 10-hour day at a clinic. The new rate would assume the machines would have a "utilization rate" of 95 percent. That kind of rate is impossible, critics said.
"When I was tested, they used different machines for different tests. It was impossible to keep them all in use on the same patient," said cancer survivor Robin Hall Guadagnini of Fayetteville. The only way to use all the machines for all the tests in full use all the time would be to use several at once on the same patient, she and doctors said.
The most active machines at the largest hospitals in the country can't maintain a utilization rate of more than 70 percent, Harms and Eric Hoffman, spokesman for the group, said. The 95 percent figure was clearly an arbitrary number picked to meet a budget goal, Hoffman said.
The bottom line is that the Medicare reimbursement rate for an MRI on the breast would drop about 20 percent, from $800 to about $640, and many doctors would no longer be able to afford to perform the procedures, Harms and his clinic staff said.
http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2009/07/13/news/071409fzmedical.txt
Worse, the change proposed by President Barack Obama's administration would cut back on prevention and greatly increase the cost of curing many problems, said radiologist Dr. Steven Harms of the Breast Center in Fayetteville. White House spokesmen had no immediate reaction to the remarks Monday.
The proposed rate is based on an assumption of how much an imaging machine is used. The more a machine is used, the more private paying customers pay the expense of the machine, in Medicare's formula. The current rates assumed for these machines is 50 percent, or five hours out of a 10-hour day at a clinic. The new rate would assume the machines would have a "utilization rate" of 95 percent. That kind of rate is impossible, critics said.
"When I was tested, they used different machines for different tests. It was impossible to keep them all in use on the same patient," said cancer survivor Robin Hall Guadagnini of Fayetteville. The only way to use all the machines for all the tests in full use all the time would be to use several at once on the same patient, she and doctors said.
The most active machines at the largest hospitals in the country can't maintain a utilization rate of more than 70 percent, Harms and Eric Hoffman, spokesman for the group, said. The 95 percent figure was clearly an arbitrary number picked to meet a budget goal, Hoffman said.
The bottom line is that the Medicare reimbursement rate for an MRI on the breast would drop about 20 percent, from $800 to about $640, and many doctors would no longer be able to afford to perform the procedures, Harms and his clinic staff said.
http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2009/07/13/news/071409fzmedical.txt
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