Pennsylvania commits to new voting machines, election audits

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration is settling a vote-counting lawsuit stemming from the 2016 presidential election, in part by affirming a commitment it made previously to push Pennsylvania’s counties to buy voting systems that leave a verifiable paper trail by 2020.

Paperwork filed Thursday in federal court in Philadelphia caps a lawsuit that Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein filed in 2016 as she sought recounts in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

All three states had a history of backing Democrats for president before they were narrowly and unexpectedly won by Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Months ago , Wolf, a Democrat, began pushing counties to upgrade to voting machines that leave a paper trail as a safeguard against hacking by 2020. Four in five Pennsylvania voters use machines that lack an auditable paper trial.

-snip-

By MARC LEVY
an hour ago


Read more: https://apnews.com/da88a6bf0fd1489abfb72b967bfd6fa4

[msongs]

1. good news for china? they are now selling voting machines related to trump nt

[iluvtennis]

2. And BTW, Ivanka got a patent for the China voting machines. I agree with the new paper trial enabled

voting machines for Pennsylvania, but hell no, they shouldn't come from China or Russia.

[diva77]

3. The way the 1st paragraph is worded leaves me to believe that the reporter does not have a complete

understanding of the voting process. Too bad more reporters don't spend more time understanding the very foundation of democracy; with the exception of a handful of them, they fail miserably as checks and balances on the gov't with regard to the casting and counting of votes.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. Wow. AP managed to leave a gaping hole in the story in it's effort to attack the (D) PA governor

and that is to ignore the majority-GOP PA state legislature.

And notably here -

Until Thursday, Wolf hadn’t said how much his administration would be willing to pay for the machines. But in the email to county officials, Boockvar said for the first time that Wolf is committed to asking lawmakers for state funding to foot at least half of the cost, on top of about $14 million in federal money already available.

I.e., hello AP....? The GOP legislature votes on funding (thankfully they have now lost their supermajority) and many of them are a nasty bunch (emboldened after their 2010 legislative election rout and even considering impeaching the state Supreme Court justices that demanded they redraw the congressional map due to gerrymandering this past spring). During the first 3 years of Wolf battling for a budget, they made it a point to block and delay (this past year they were finally put into check). And I can imagine some red counties balking at making any changes. Hope the court will force the imposition down to the county level as I know Wolf has always been all for it.

The good thing though is that Wolf got re-elected.

[watoos]

5. I want to go back to paper ballots.

I vote in Pa. and every time I vote I ask for a receipt and every time I have been denied one. The only paper trail is the final tally. This past election Republicans won 80-20.

[samnsara]

6. why dont they just go all paper instead of machine AND paper?

[watoos]

7. Can't flip a #2 pencil mark from one oval to the next.

[not_the_one]

8. We (partner and I) just recently retired to Pocono area from Manhattan

and voted for the first time there.

They used machines, but I held up my PA state DL, and voter id in front of screen and took a photograph of my selection.

I helped to reverse course for PA, and have proof of my vote.

I am going to document my votes. If they want to make an issue of it, let them try. The optics would be incredibly damning for them.