Sioux County Made the Paper - Again!

I noticed another article about the deplorable state of the voting machines in Sioux county. It was on page A-5 of the April 3, 2003 edition of the Sioux City Journal. It pointed out that while Woodbury county and most of the other counties have updated their voting machines, "a few western Iowa counties are among the handful with the oldest of election machines." This was reported by Chet Culver, Iowa Secretary of State. He noted that six counties, including Sioux have "19th century voting equipment." These machines were invented in 1892. The current crop of voting machines in Sioux county were manufactured in the 1960's and replacement parts for the machines have not been made since 1982. These machines are held together with rubber bands and prayer and are just a disaster waiting to happen. But a Sioux County official (unnamed) said there have been "almost no problems with the older lever machines, and only periodically with the larger lever."

Come on Sioux County. This is deplorable. Why should we spend all that money on political ads and "get out the vote" campaigns when we use machinery that has been out of date in the rest of the country and the state for over 20 years? Why should we bother to vote when the possibility of our vote not counting is rapidly becoming a probability? Let me guess. The tight Board of Supervisors are hoping Sioux County will get federal or state money to pay for new machines. They are playing Russian Roulette with our votes to save a buck. Meanwhile, Sioux County is again portrayed as a backward, hick county with ancient voting rituals and armed posies riding in the back of pickup trucks at the behest of the Sheriff. Do we want to look like Palm Beach, Florida? That image should improve recruitment of business, industry and people into Sioux County - yeah, right. Do we have to wait until all the votes in a precinct or district are lost before the Supervisors get their heads out of their -- pocketbooks -- and join the twenty-first century? Let them know you want to make sure your vote will count.

You can let them know what you think. After all, they are elected, too.

Monte J. Harvey, D.O.
April 4, 2003