Howard County Times,
03/16/06
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House votes to use voting machines with paper
trail
The House of Delegates voted unanimously March 9 to abandon the state's
current touch-screen voting machines in favor of ones that produce a verifiable
paper trail in time for the fall elections.
The bill would require the state either purchase $55 million in new machines
that produce paper records, or, if that is unfeasible by the 2006 elections, to
lease optical scan voting machines, like those Maryland previously used, at a
cost of $12.5 million.
The idea to rent the optical scan machines came from Del. Elizabeth Bobo, a
Columbia Democrat.
"It was great to have it go through at 137-0," Bobo said, referring to the
House's unanimous vote on the bill, adding that she hopes the Senate will
approve a similar version of the legislation.
Officials of the State Board of Elections have called implementing a new
voting system by the fall "a near impossibility," according to an analysis of
the bill by legislative staff.
The Senate has not yet voted on its version of the legislation.
- Connor Adam Sheets, Capital News Service
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