Did Washington waste millions on faulty voting machines?

[babsbunny]

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/48509.html

By Greg Gordon | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON _ Hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding that have gone to upgrade the nation's voting machines since 2003 were used to purchase touch-screen systems that many states are now scrapping because of concerns about their security and reliability.

State governments in Alaska, California, Florida, Iowa, Maryland, Tennessee and New Mexico have decided to replace their touch-screen electronic machines. While some states have completed the switch, others won't finish replacing the machines until 2010. Nationwide, the federal government spent $1.2 billion on new voting machines between 2003 and 2007.

Optical scanning equipment is becoming the preferred replacement because, unlike touch-screens, it preserves each voter’s original paper ballot in the event of a recount.

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is seeking to recover millions of dollars her state spent on the touch-screen machines and is urging the state legislature to require optical scanners statewide instead.

[seemslikeadream]

1. yes

[cliffordu]

2. Yep. Paper trail NOW!!!

[gristy]

3. Depends on your point of view

They did their job as intended in '04 in the form of stolen elections for the GOP and $$$ for vendors.

[KansDem]

4. Considering this mob flushed $3 trillion down the Iraqi toilet based on lies...

$1.2 billion seems like a drop in the bucket.

Just forget the f*cking voting machines and go to paper ballots now!!!

[grannie4peace]

5. yes!!!!

yes,yes,yes,yes,yes,yes,yes,yes,yes,yes