Pointing the Finger

Jeez. Another election, and another voting machine problem.

This time they can't blame Republicans.

Angry and embarrassed over hundreds of malfunctioning voting machines in Tuesday's primary, the Philadelphia City Commissioners' Office yesterday vowed to launch a "thorough and complete" investigation of what went wrong in perhaps the city's biggest election-day mishap in years.

So far, nobody knows for sure.

All 3,526 machines were tested the same way they have always been tested since the city bought them five years ago, election officials said.

Even the election watchdog group Committee of Seventy reported nothing amiss when conducting its own routine testing last week of two random machines in each of the city's 67 wards.

"This does not shine brightly upon this office," an obviously disappointed Deputy Commissioner Edward Schulgen said at yesterday's meeting of the commissioners, who oversee city elections. "I've been here since 1984 and I'm proud of my employees and this office... [but] we will not tolerate this malfunctioning again."

No one in charge of Philadelphia is of the pachydermal persuasion. Only asses donkeys.

But I still blame Diebold, Bush, Ohio's Secretary of State Blackwell and Republicans in general.

It's only a matter of time before the trail leads to them.

Posted by AlexC at May 18, 2006 7:17 PM