States had several years after the Help America Vote Act passed to purchase new technology for voting. It was at that time good government organizations started raising the warning flag about the security of many of the voting machines that companies like Diebold were marketing to county registrars. Nobody really knew how secure they were, but the mere fact that they were operating on a Microsoft Operating System raised a lot of red flags. Registrars were cautioned at the time to slow down and really examine what they were purchasing. After all, the machines were not cheap. Quite frankly, I believe it was a major flaw in the bill that it did not require the states to be in charge of the purchasing rather than the local registrars. The patchwork system is coming back to bite us in the rear.
By and large they did not heed that call. Now, several years down the road somebody actually did a real security test on the machines and low and behold they are not secure at all. Secretary of State Debra Bowen did what she pledged to do in the campaign and the results of the top to bottom study left her with little chance but to decertify many of our voting machines, at least temporarily.
That is all a long way of saying that I am not exactly sympathetic to the whining coming out of the registrars about the costs of Bowen's move. She moved with all deliberate speed and the complaints that this is a last minute move ring hollow. The registrars should have known this was coming and planned for this occurrence when Bowen took office. We are still six months out from the election and machines still have the opportunity to be re-certified.
I have absolutely no problems with the state spending more money to ensure votes are counted correctly. It is the underpinnings of our entire system of government. A couple million dollars more and a bit of a delay and hearing the returns is well worth ensuring everybody's vote are recorded accurately and nobody is able to infiltrate the system is more than worth it.
