More News: WI certifies VotePAD; PA County buys eSlates @ $2500 per unit; FL activists seek investigation of vendors

["Joe Pezzillo" <jpezzillo@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks to John Gideon of VoteTrustUSA and VotersUnite, you can get  
the top national voting related news of the day on BradBlog, here are  
just a few relevant highlights from the FORTY stories listed today :

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002599.htm

Yes, I "selectively" chose the quotes below, but you already knew  
that: there are some disability advocates who are fighting against  
paper ballot based accessibility devices, Hart has other eSlate  
customers, and you should already know about County Clerk Ion Sancho  
of Leon County, FL and his discovery that the Diebold machines can be  
undetectably hacked.

Also, sorry, TinyURL seems to be down this evening, so no alternate  
urls at this time, if the URLs don't work, be sure that they haven't  
gotten wrapped onto multiple lines (you may need to "re-assemble" the  
URLs on one line to get them to work if this is the case), OR, just  
go to BradBlog and use the links there.

Thanks for your attention to and concern about this issue!

Joe


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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Wisconsin Certifies AutoMark AND Vote-PAD

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=410107

"Suzanne Erb, who is blind, said she tried out the Vote-PAD as a  
member of the Philadelphia Mayor's Commission on People with  
Disabilities.

"I'd been advocating for voting accessibility, especially for people  
who are blind. I've never cast an independent, private vote in my  
life, and I'm looking forward to doing so," Erb said."

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Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

"Fayette OKs e-vote vendor"

http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/fayette/s_436056.html

"With less than two months before the 2006 primary, Fayette County  
commissioners said Wednesday that a Texas company guaranteed it will  
deliver state-mandated electronic voting machines by mid-April for  
training for election bureau employees and poll workers. [...] County  
officials are expected to buy 278 voting machines and 105 judge booth  
controllers for use at the 105 precincts. The equipment has a life  
expectancy of 25 to 27 years and does not require any special storage  
conditions, said Molly Terry, a regional sales manager for Hart.  
[...] The $2,500 price per voting machine was set during negotiations  
with the Department of State."

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Uniontown Herald-Standard

"County to buy voting system"

http://www.heraldstandard.com/site/news.cfm? 
newsid=16356432&BRD=2280&PAG=461&dept_id=480247&rfi=6

"The total cost of the contract was not available Wednesday  
afternoon, although the machines will cost $2,500 each, for a total  
of $670,000 just for the machines. The company will provide support  
and training as well as the equipment."

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Tallahassee Democrat

http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060323/ 
NEWS01/603230323/1010/NEWS01

"The Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition is asking Attorney General  
Charlie Crist to investigate the three voting-equipment companies  
certified to do business in Florida."



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