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Voting machine plan: Despite obstacles, it will be worth effort

There is nothing to fault in Gov. Wolf’s mandate to have new voting machines in place statewide by the 2020 presidential election.

We don’t need Pennsylvania to copy Florida’s multiple embarrassments in the past several key elections. Getting all counties on a new, level playing field regarding voting machines is the best way to keep that from happening.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of unsettled issues that are holding up the voting machine upgrade.

The stumbling block at the moment is the partial government shutdown, which is holding up Pennsylvania’s review of voting machine vendors.

But the shutdown, believe it or not, is going to end at some point. The gravitational pull of politics is going to make that happen.

But there are larger issues after that, notably money.

Congress authorized $356 million for national election security, with the money to be distributed to states, which in turn are obligated to make a 5- percent matching contribution.

So Pennsylvania has $14.1 million earmarked for its 67 counties.

Lycoming County expects to receive an estimated $110,000 toward its replacement efforts.

Is that enough? No one will know until a state-approved vendor is secured and under contract.

The larger question for some counties, including Lycoming, is whether this is all worth it when the existing machines have proven quite accurate and secure. We understand that.

But we are not going to be the ones to argue against a sincere effort to make sure Pennsylvania’s voting process in the 2020 presidential election is beyond second-guessing.

And, when all the shutdown smoke clears, we hope the other 49 states embark on the same path.

And all the states, Pennsylvania included, should be willing to increase their funding responsibilities should vendor contracts make that necessary. This should not be a county funding dilemma.

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