Philadelphia Commissioners said they will not update the voting machines used for the 2020 Presidential election to ones with a paper trail.
Commissioner Lisa Deeley told WHYY the city will purchase the new machines, but not have them in use for the election.
“I think that we are on track in the city of Philadelphia to have new equipment selected by the close of 2019,” Deeley said.
“We would roll them out in ’21, not in the presidential. We would train and maybe do a soft opening, like a trial in certain areas, then roll them out citywide in ’21.”
Acting Secretary of State Robert Torres ordered all counties in the state to shift to voting machines that provide a paper back up by the end of 2019.
Update: Deeley told PoliticsPA that Philadelphia is keeping with the Department of State order.
“Governor Wolf requires that counties select new voting machines by 2020 and we will meet that deadline,” Deeley said.
Deeley said that trying to order the over 4,000 machines and train the over 6,000 volunteers and staff involved in the process to roll out the new machines would not end well. She cited the last time the city rolled out new machines where it took a year to train the poll workers and ensure the public was educated on how to use the new machines.
She said that doing a limited release during the 2020 election and then a full roll out for the 2021 elections is the best way to shift to the new machines.
“It would be irresponsible to roll out new voting machines during the busiest and most important election, the 2020 Presidential election,” Deeley said.
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8 Responses
So I’m guessing none of the commentators have worked in project management, with a large government organization, or a project larger than – oh lets guess…$50, with volunteers, I could list more but the point is made. Go back to Facebook to waste your time unless you want to pitch in and help. The biggest problem with this initiative is Elected Government officials making political proclamations that they can’t deliver on due to the lack of finances, time, and resources which does nobody any good and erodes public trust.
Seriously. There are 66 wards comprising just shy of 1,700 divisions in the City of Philadelphia. We’re talking about replacing thousands of voting machines and training thousands more volunteers (many of whom are older retirees for whom technology does not always come as easily) on an entire new set of technology and procedures.
But yeah, clearly this is a result of corruption and not basic, logistical realities. The other commenters here are definitely speaking out of ignorant bias rather than knowledge.
It takes a long time to learn how to fake votes on new machinery.
Yeah I mean why in god’s blue heaven would they want to do that? It’s wayyyyyyyyyy easier to sign a dead person’s name on a piece of paper and shove it in the box.
You realize you just posted fake news? Philly doesn’t have paper ballots. Take your troll posts to pro-Trump sites please.
Not a good look or a good policy.
VOTER FRAUD PHILLY
I’m sure they have their reasons, but this really doesn’t help soften the Philly corruption narrative, does it?