A number of issues here. Hidden costs, machines having sleepovers with poll workers, being transported on election day...and what happens to the machines at the end of the day? Are they secured, or transported yet again? How is data secured? (pardon the oxymoron)
State rules add to county voting costs
by JEFF SCHMERKER
Staff writer
The Mountaineer
NC
In an odd way, it’s back to square one for the county and its new voting machines. Earlier this year the county voted to spend about $212,000, in addition to state funds, to buy new touch screen voting machines
Much of the reason for choosing touch screens instead of the lower-priced optical scan vote machines was because the scanners were too heavy for poll station workers to lift and transport on their own.
<snip>
Touch screen voting machines, however, could easily be transported by poll workers in private vehicles, Bradshaw said.
But now, with a recent mandate from the state, it looks like the new touch screen machines will also have to be delivered the day before polls open.
Bradshaw told commissioners she needs to buy 14 racks to store and transport the voting machines. The racks have rollers and can be wheeled out to a truck with a hydraulic lift and be taken to polling stations the night before polls open. They also have built-in battery chargers.
Cost? $1,239 per rack. The county needs 18. A Help Americans Vote Act grant of about $5,000 will pay for four.
For the rest:
http://www.themountaineer.com/archives/2006/04/07/topstories_staterulesaddtocount.html
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