State gets ready to change over voting machines

 (Stratford-WTNH, Sept. 21, 2005 6:10 PM) _ Election day next year is shaping up to be the first election in a century without the mechanical lever voting machines.

The state has been told by the Justice Department that a waiver of last week's ruling forcing new machines, state-wide, is highly unlikely.
by Chief Political Correspondent Mark Davis   WTNH News   21 September 2005

For 100 years, voters in Connecticut have used mechanical machines like these to vote for candidates and issues.

The state has now been forced to prepare for sending every one of these machines in the state to the junk yard.

Faced with the edict from Washington the Secretary of the State today met with city and town leaders to map a game plan because election officials state-wide are stunned.

"I've talked to quite a few since this bombshell fell last week and they're very concerned about what's going to be taking place here in the next couple of months," says Richard Abbate, President Registrars of Voters Association of Connecticut.

Some voters we spoke with today don't like the idea of doing away with them at all.

"I like the physical nature of it and knowing that it's locked out," says Courtney Morrow, Hebron.

But the federal ruling says the fact that the machines are locked and there are rows and rows of mechanical digits to use for recounts is not enough because there is no paper trail.

"We are in an electronic technology age now and it's about time we put away the old stuff," says Monica Edwards, Hartford.

"If it improves the opportunity for the populace to be able to vote, for everyone to vote, yes," says Joanne Taylor, Bloomfield.

That is what the federal ruling is aiming for machines that can accommodate all languages, all disabilities and still have a paper record of the voting but, of course, you may asked to foot the bill.

"If the federal money is not enough, then the legislature will have to consider the possibility of bonding," says Susan Bysiewicz, (D) Secretary of the State.

After the municipal elections this November. State election officials are planning demonstrations of the new machines for registrars of voters, state-wide.

The state is in the process of buying 769 modern machines with the 33 million dollars that came from the feds, not nearly enough to replace the 33-hundred mechanical lever machines currently in use.