It Seems Some Candidates Have Blogger's Block

Each of the touch-screen devices is being loaded with the primary ballot and tested, the goal being to avoid a Florida- or Ohio-style primary disaster. "Our intent is that it be a seamless process to the voter," said county general registrar Jackie C. Harris.

It has been a little too seamless for many people. That's why June 12 will be the beginning of the last hurrah for the county's current inventory of DRE (direct record electronic) machines, which don't produce a paper receipt verifying that voters have had their selections properly recorded. This year, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) signed legislation barring localities from buying DRE models after July 1. Fairfax and other communities will begin replacing them with optical scanning machines that read paper ballots. Harris said she has spoken to county officials about the "significant capital investment" that will be involved.

In the meantime, to guard against security breaches, election officials have bought a $21,000 motion-sensitive fence to place around the DRE machines in the warehouse.

James Madison, Supervisor

The McLean Citizens Association, one of the region's largest neighborhood groups, took the Fairfax Board of Supervisors to task for its series of closed meetings on the Dulles rail project. It passed a resolution May 2 expressing "strong concern about the excessive secrecy" with which the board has proceeded.

Supervisors have met three times in closed session in recent weeks, once for more than two hours, to discuss their misgivings about the rail project, which will be built aboveground through Tysons Corner. The board has called for a tunnel under Tysons instead. Board members said they were receiving legal advice that made the executive sessions permissible.

Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D) has announced a public briefing on the rail project for June 4 and promised that everything covered behind closed doors will see the light. In answering criticism of the secrecy, he could not resist noting: "The Constitution was drafted in closed session."

Since removal of Dulles rail from the closed agenda, supervisors have had significantly less to discuss in private. At the April 30 and May 7 meetings, county attorneys estimated that the board needed no more than 20 minutes to conclude its business in executive session.