Reply #22: NM: Santa Fe County chooses new voting machines

[rumpel]

By Julie Ann Grimm | The New Mexican
December 6, 2005

Despite an 11th-hour protest from people who question the security and effectiveness of new electronic voting machines, Santa Fe County Clerk Valerie Espinoza has ordered touch-screen voting machines to comply with a federal mandate.

New Mexico Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron gave the state's 33 county clerks until today to decide which of three state-approved machines they prefer. Espinoza said Monday that she told the secretary's office last week to order touch-screen machines called Sequoia Edge.

Espinoza requested 56 of the machines, one for each county polling place, as required by the federal Help America Vote Act, she said.

The machines -- aimed at creating equal voting rights for disabled voters and those who do not speak English -- are at the center of controversy still swirling from the 2004 general election.

http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/35951.html