Weekend America: Election Prep - "I think the technology stinks."

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http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org/programs/2006/10/28/anything_to_get_elec.html

OCT. 28 Show - "November 7 is just around the corner and elections officials across the country are scrambling to get ready. Unproven voting systems, delays in equipment deliveries, and audio programs that only speak Vietnamese are adding to the chaos. For an inside view of two precincts in the thick of it, Barbara talks with Wendy Noren in Boone County, Missouri and Freddie Oakley in Yolo County, California."

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BARBARA BOGAEV: I wonder, though, if maybe this technological challenge is a good thing, because it sounds as if your poll workers - it's gonna be a really multi-generational lot.

FREDDIE OAKLEY (Yolo County, California): I think it's a bad thing. (Barbara laughs "O.K.") I think it's a bad thing. I think the technology stinks. It's really rudimentary and pathetic. What we have available to us is - for the most part - not built from the ground up for elections, but it's systems cobbled together on Windows-based platforms. Like something my father, who was a rocket scientist, would have called a gold-plated shovel with a rope handle. In my jurisdiction, my voters are justifiably super, super concerned.

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