Voting

Every level of society has become technology drunk. Why use a pencil and paper when you can use a $3000 machine to do the same thing? Our lever machines have served us well for many years why not use an updated version? I'm sure if you wrote a specification for an updated lever machine some company would build it. But the Help America Vote Act mandated something different.

The TL: Ballots for state and local offices would be cast through the familiar lever-style machines the county has used for decades. But in elections where federal offices are up for grabs, voters would have to use paper ballots – or if the county so chooses, the electronic system being proposed – to cast votes for those offices.
That's the scenario painted in a Commonwealth Court ruling issued Monday in a Westmoreland County case. The ruling, which will have statewide impact, requires Westmoreland County to get approval from voters via a referendum before changing to an electronic voting machine, like the model chosen by Luzerne County officials.

Ol' Froth has it right:

And what's wrong with paper ballots anyway? Sure, you cannot count them quickly, but high-speed counting benefits but one group, the media. I'd rather have it right, and get the results a day later than have high speed tallying for the benefit of the media that results in an inaccurate vote result.