City, county agree punch card voting must go (Chicago/Cook Cnty)

[Bushfire]

October 9, 2003

BY CURTIS LAWRENCE AND ABDON M. PALLASCH Staff Reporters

Two civil rights groups have reached a settlement with Cook County and the City of Chicago they say will bring an end to the confusion over dimpled chads that dominated the last presidential election.

The settlement, filed in U.S. District Court, will retire by March 2006 "the outdated, error-prone punch card voting system that has left uncounted the votes of thousand of citizens in recent national and statewide elections," said Harvey Grossman, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.

The ACLU and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed lawsuits against Cook County, Chicago, the State Board of Elections and other cities and counties in 2001.

The suits demanded best efforts to have new systems in place by the first election after January 2006.

more...

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-vote09.html

only good news is that they are waiting until to 2006 to be in place, but there is still lots of work to do to educate these election officials.