Buy New Voting Machines Already
Purchase New Voting Machines Already
Philly Election Commissioners are refusing to have new, reliable machines in place by 2020. As Philly iii.0's Engagement Director notes, that puts the Presidential ballot at take chances
Dec. 26, 2018
Governor Tom Wolf has ordered all Pennsylvania counties to purchase new voting machines in time for the 2022 Presidential ballot, and his Section of State has been selecting the machines that they'll certify for counties to purchase. Many counties, including Philadelphia , have been dragging their feet, and some have even enlisted their land lawmakers to try and counter Wolf and then counties can wriggle out of the deadline. And and then there's Montgomery Canton.
THIS Article IS PART OF A CONTENT PARTNERSHIP WITH:
Montgomery Canton is just going ahead and doing what they're supposed to , buying new voting machines and rolling them out in time for the 2022 elections as a exam-run for 2020, as WHHY reported last calendar week:
Officials hope about 400 voting machines will be in identify for the May 21 primary ballot.
Kenneth Lawrence, vice chairman of the County Board of Commissioners says the county is staying with Dominion Voting Systems to provide the machines at a cost of nearly $6 million.
"This new system will be a modernistic arrangement, with voter-marked paper balloting with a verifiable newspaper trail so we tin audit to make sure that ballots are counted correctly," Lawrence said.
All electronic voting machines, as are common in many parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, take drawn criticism since they don't accept a paper tape that could be audited in the case of a malfunction or dispute.
The machines they'll be getting in MontCo will also let absentee ballots to be fed right into the machine, rather than requiring a paw count, so the complete election results will be available much sooner than they are today.
Meanwhile in Philadelphia, Commissioner Lisa Deeley isn't even pretending she'll attempt to meet the 2022 deadline and is instead aiming for 2021.
The PA Department of State has said they'll refuse to certify the 2022 election results from any county that hasn't updated their machines, then the Commissioners' approach is recklessly putting Philadelphia on track for a crisis in a key election year.
Philadelphia City Commissioner Lisa Deeley said the city will find machines past the deadline, only they will not be put in service.
"I think that we are on track in the metropolis of Philadelphia to accept new equipment selected by the close of 2019," she said.
That means the older machines that do non have a fill-in for every ballot will be even so be in use in November of 2020, Deeley said.
"Nosotros would gyre them out in '21, not in the presidential," she said. "Nosotros would train and perhaps exercise a soft opening, similar a trial in certain areas, then roll them out citywide in '21."
What Deeley is proposing is really not a choice that the Commissioners have, since the PA Department of Land has said they'll refuse to certify the 2022 election results from any county that hasn't updated their machines, so the Commissioners' approach is recklessly putting Philadelphia on track for a crisis in a key election twelvemonth. Montgomery Canton'south good-player instance shows at that place's still time to human action and avoid an unnecessary showdown with the Section of State in a critical ballot year in Pennsylvania.
Jon Geeting is the managing director of date at Philadelphia 3.0 , a political action committee that supports efforts to reform and modernize Urban center Hall. This is role of a series of articles running in both The Denizen and 3.0's blog.
Photo via Flickr 
Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/buy-new-voting-machines-already/
0 Response to "Buy New Voting Machines Already"
Post a Comment