State ordered to be ready sooner with paper ballots

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

State ordered to be ready sooner with paper ballots

Thursday, October 30, 2008
The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA -- Pennsylvania election officials will make paper ballots available to voters if half the machines at a polling place break down, they said, declining to appeal a federal judge's emergency order yesterday.

The state has previously required that paper ballots only be offered if all the machines break down, but several voter groups filed a lawsuit last week in which they said long lines at the polls could disenfranchise voters.

Chief U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III agreed, finding that the potential harm to voters far outweighed the arguments of state and county officials who believe the rule change could cause confusion among poll workers.

"We find that there is a real danger that a significant number of machines will malfunction throughout the Commonwealth, and this occurrence is likely to cause unacceptably long lines on Nov. 4," Judge Bartle wrote in a 25-page ruling late yesterday, a day after hearing evidence in the case.


http://www.postgazette.com/pg/08304/924060-100.stm