Sunday, February 22, 2009

State and County Elections Offices Struggle with Economic Crisis - VoteTrustUSA

VoteTrustUSA - State and County Elections Offices Struggle with Economic Crisis:

"In Fairfax County, Va., Rokey Suleman, general registrar, said while normal hours are being maintained at the office, two vacancies cannot be filled because of budget concerns. Further, the department is being forced to cut down on seasonal staff to make up for budgetary shortfalls.

More significantly to voters, Fairfax County will not be moving to an optical scan system because it cannot afford it right now. The machines sit idle, waiting until the county can afford to purchase the paper.

“We have mothballed our optical-scan voting equipment that was recently purchased because we cannot afford paper ballots. The transition to paper is now delayed 18 moths,” Suleman said. “We are relying on old DRE equipment. I have started to advocate vote-by-mail elections but do not believe that will happen in Virginia for at least a decade.”"

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