The following report by Team 4 investigator Jim Parsons first aired on Channel 4 Action News at 5 p.m. on March 28, 2006.

---

Voters in Allegheny County will use a new type of voting machine the next time they head to the polls.

The entire ballot is presented to the voter at once. Voting is a simple matter of pressing in a square area. There's actually a push button behind that square area, behind a paper ballot overlay. A light comes on when the selection is registered.

Paul Terwilliger is Sequoia's technical whiz. He said even though the company's AVC Advantage model still hasn't been approved in Pennsylvania, it was just starting that process Tuesday in Harrisburg.

He said the company will be ready for Allegheny County's May primary.

"We are already in he process of delivering machines to Allegheny County. I think the first shipment is this week," Terwilliger said.

Allegheny County is getting 2,000 used machines from Las Vegas, because that community is upgrading to Sequoia's Edge model, which is much more high tech.

But the Edge seemed to lose its edge this week in Chicago, where the city's most influential alderman wants to fire Sequoia.

Chicago used Sequoia electronic voting machines for the first time in last Tuesday's election.

As of Tuesday, thousands of votes still have to be counted.

"It's an embarrassment, it's a disgrace. And until such time as we find out what caused all this, I don't think this firm should be paid," said Chicago alderman Ed Burke.

Sequoia machines in Chicago malfunctioned when they attached them to phone lines to call in results, but Pennsylvania's top election official said what happened there won't happen here.

"If you dig into the detail of that, you'll see what happened was they were trying to take the result from the precinct level and call them into a central area. I'm not sure what the manner was, whether it was cell phone or modem or what. We do not allow that in Pennsylvania. So, really, it's not going to affect us at all," said Pennsylvania Elections Commissioner Harry Van Sickle.

But a group opposing Allegheny County's purchase of the Sequoia AVC Advantage said the problems in Chicago were not as simple as is being portrayed.

Several voting machines in Chicago had results of "zero" at the end of the night.

University of Pittsburgh Computer Science graduate student Collin Lynch said if that happens here, there won't be any way to recount the vote because there is no paper trail backup on Allegheny County's machines.