Four Counties Out $1M After Voting Machine Company Goes Bust
State seeking federal money to reimburse cost of replacement machines
WIBC Indianapolis. February 6, 2008 By Eric Berman

Boone County and three others are out a million dollars, after their voting-machine supplier went broke.

Boone, Cass, Parke and Randolph Counties had to buy brand-new voting machines, because there's no one left at VTI for customer support.

Indiana requires voting-machine companies to place the source code for their software in escrow for just such a circumstance, but it turned out to be no help, because VTI pledged its server to a Wisconsin bank as collateral.

The bank agreed to let the counties use the server for last year's city elections, but has not renewed the offer for this year.

A Senate committee has approved a bill pledging 125-thousand dollars to help reimburse the counties, and move them to the head of the line for federal election money to cover the rest.

Indiana is eligible for $2.3 million in federal money, but would need federal approval to spend it on replacement machines. Eighth District Congressman Brad Ellsworth has been seeking support for federal legislation to cover that, while the bill in the Indiana legislature urges Secretary of State Todd Rokita to lobby the executive branch for authorization.