Constitutional Law

Judge Orders Pa. Election Officials To Make Paper Ballots Available

A federal judge in Pennsylvania has ordered election officials to ensure that paper ballots are available for voters if voting machines malfunction. The order was the result of a lawsuit filed by NAACP State Conference of Pennsylvania and the Election Reform Network on behalf of voters. The group sued Secretary of the Commonwealth Pedro A. Cortes after he issued a decree that paper ballots were only to be made available if all machines in a polling place broke down. Judge Harvey Bartle III concluded that “We find there is a real danger that a significant number of machines will malfunction throughout the commonwealth, and this occurrence is likely to cause unacceptably long lines on Nov. 4.”

Full post as published by ACS Blog on October 30, 2008 (boomark / email).