As election time rounds please take a moment to consider the plight of Butler County in their ill advised relationship with Electronic Voting Machine Manufacturer ES&S.
I personally would evoke the reminder that our majority Commissioners would
not listen to reason in the matter of fiduciary responsibility, would not listen to reason in the implementation of a Citizens Advisory Panel On Elections (AdHoc) and plowed forward with their disastrous purchase choice which was not only nearly $ 1,000,000.00 more than the VERIFIABLE VOTING ALTERNATIVE (optical scan) but now as costs escalate precisely as projected in terms of Warranty issues we're looking at the potential of several hundred thousand dollars more.
32 other Counties in the State find themselves in identical predicaments with respect to ES&S. And what did we purchase for this exorbitant price? Elections that cannot be trusted or verified. And the question that no longer goes begging is why.
Why do elected officials make such arbitrary irresponsible decisions that fly in the very face of reason and slap the collective faces of those who furnish their salaries? Unfortunately the evidence supports only one avenue.
Simply because they can.
It seems the party of smaller goverment and larger personal responsibility only had a very clever saying whose actual application has gone unrealized. So my friends and neighbors, I'd admonish you to please vote responsibly, based upon matters of character and integrity, actual financial responsibility not merely lip service and clever catch phrases. And finally to hold those who are personally responsible for the overall deplorable condition of this County to a higher standard when considering your next representative.
Previously posted as "Election decision still wrong" (Butler Eagle 7/27/07)
