So Much For Voting Machine Nostalgia

     Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz drove home the demise of the mechanical voting machine by inviting TV cameras to record one getting scooped off the Capitol driveway today by a Hartford public works truck and dumped like an abandoned refrigerator.

     With Tuesday's election, every community in Connecticut will be using a combination of paper ballots and optical scanners.

     The mechanical lever machines, which had been used since 1932, will survive as exhibits in local historical societies and scattered town halls and schools, Bysiewicz said. Most are being sold for scrap, she said.

     The prop for Bysiewicz's press conference was donated by Hartford. Machine number 78877 was last used in the 2006 statewide and is going to the crusher with Gov. M. Jodi Rell's name at the top of the ballot.

     -- Mark Pazniokas

    

Comments

[Nutmeg Observer]

I still say this stunt worked better the first time... 25 years ago, when John Rowland smashed the Sony on the House floor!