As my fellow Commissioners and I begin our work at the Election Assistance Commission we have embarked on a “listening tour” across the country to figure out where to start after several years without a quorum at the EAC. One message is clear at every stop. As Louisiana Secretary of State Tom Schedler said recently: Addressing the House and Governmental Affairs committee Wednesday, Louisiana Secretary of State Tom Schedler sent out an S-O-S on the condition of the state’s stock of voting machines. “I just will tell you that it’s getting a little scary out there,” Schedler said, reminding lawmakers, “Voting machine equipment is all 15-20 years, plus.” Sulphur Rep. Mike Danahay, part of a contingent investigating new voting technology with Schedler, noted, “They’re having to scavenge parts off old machines to keep the current machines running.”
Schedler said parish registrars are have more and more problems with the laptops they use for tabulating votes cast during elections and transmitting the results to his office. “They’re seven or eight years old,” Schedler said. “Can you imagine using a laptop seven or eight years old? That’s what we’re doing.”
The problem with replacing the aging voting machines is — of course — money. The federal government previously helped pay for voting equipment, but that money is spent. States don’t have spare funding to cover the expense, either. But Schedler says the issue is closing in on critical mass. “We’re going to have to find some way, somehow, to get this done,” Schedler insisted. “I’m not proposing doing it in one year. We’ll probably do it over a two-year period. And we’re going to have to find some inventive way of financing how we’re going to do it.”
Full Article: Blog Details Commissioner Masterson’s Notes from the Road 3.13.15.