Commissioners want new voting machines
$17 million touch screens can't handle big elections, Cuyahoga officials say
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1164794175139720.xml&coll=2Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Joan Mazzolini
Plain Dealer Reporter
Cuyahoga County commissioners want to dump their new touch-screen voting machines, which cost taxpayers $17 million, and get another system in time for the 2008 presidential election.
"Even though we have a substantial amount of money in it, we're considering scrapping the whole system," Commissioner Tim Hagan said.
Hagan and Commissioner Jimmy Dimora said the county can't afford to spend $14 million to run every election the way they did the Nov. 7 general election. Commissioners threw millions of dollars to the Board of Elections for poll worker training, consultants and extra machines.
The spending worked -- the election was mostly a success, with just a few polling locations having trouble getting the touch screen machines running on time. The biggest complaint was long lines at some locations...