The complaint states that the defendants have failed to provide physically accessible polling places and voting machines for voters with disabilities. The complaint refers to the new voting machines the city will have shortly. The city has operated old and antiquated voting machines for some time and took bids with various national companies for the machines.
Former City Commissioner Alex Talmadge, who pushed for new machines during his tenure, was not named in the suit because he resigned from his position one month prior to the filing of the suit to run for district attorney.
The voting-machine vendor Danaher received the contract, and the new machines will cost $18.5 million.
http://citypaper.net/articles/112901/news.polnote.shtmlSo they underbid the competition, and/or bribed a few local pols:
Officers of Shoup Voting Machine Co. were indicted for allegedly bribing politicians in Tampa, Florida in 1971, according to the San Francisco Business Times. Ransom Shoup was convicted in 1979 of conspiracy and obstruction of justice related to an FBI inquiry into a lever machine-counted election in Philadelphia. Shoup got a three-year suspended sentence. Meanwhile, Philadelphia has bought new voting machines from Danaher-Guardian, which appears to only sell voting machines formerly known as the "Shouptronic."
http://www.ecotalk.org/PressRelease.htmIt's hard to believe the Street administration would disenfranchise its constituents, but then it's almost a Philly tradition:
Firefighters found the bodies of six people today in the charred rubble of a radical group's house that bold been leveled in a police assault that set fire to the surrounding; neighborhood and destroyed more than 50 homes.
Mayor W. Wilson Goode, saying he was "devastated" by Monday night's destruction, said the city would rebuild the houses gutted by the blaze, which left 200 people homeless.
...
Mr. Goode indicated that he would approve such a bombing again <in> a similar situation.
http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/MOVE-Phihladelphia-BombNYT14may85.htmAs mayor, Rizzo continued to support the strong-arm tactics of the police department, and he himself made liberal use of them. He even formed a secret police force that investigated his political opponents. Rizzo claimed that severe law enforcement methods were necessary in a time of rising crime rates, but by 1979, the courts had to decide whether the city of Philadelphia, in its zeal for law and order, had violated the rights of its citizens. On August 3, 1979, the United States District Court, charging that Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo and 18 high-ranking city and police officials either committed or condoned "widespread and severe" acts of police brutality.
http://www.dsl.psu.edu/civilrights/articles/frankrizzobio.html
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