More than $700,000 of taxpayer money was spent on iPads the Lee County Election Supervisor can’t even use. It turns out they’re not compatible with computers in the elections office. Supervisor Sharon Harrington is asking for hundreds of thousands of dollars more to replace them. The snafu has a lot of taxpayers upset. The big question now is what to do with them. “What are they simply going to do with more than $700,000 in iPads that have already been purchased? I’m not sure if there is a return-to-sender package on that,” said Patrick Nadel of Fort Myers. Nadel is also a financial advisor and calls the purchase of 2,000 non-compatible iPads a poor business decision. “That type of situation can be alleviated with a simple call to an IT department with the question of ‘will this work with what we have,'” said Nadel.
Lee County Commissioner Larry Kiker agrees with Nadel. “We’re going to actually send in our IT experts that are available to her and help Ms. Harrington take a look at what it is she needs to accomplish,” said Kiker.
We stopped by the election supervisor’s office to find out how this happened. Harrington was unavailable to speak with us. We were told she hopes to get it fixed during a conference in Orlando next week.
However, according to Lee County Commissioner Brian Hamman, Harrington wants more money to fix the problem. “She’s making a request for about $900,000 for new equipment,” said Hamman.
Full Article: New election equipment upgrade not compatible with purchased iPa – NBC-2.com WBBH News for Fort Myers, Cape Coral & Naples, Florida.