Infamous voting machines up for sale By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER Scripps Howard News Service April 05, 2002

- To borrow a catch phrase from the latest ad campaign for Mastercard, history is priceless.

Its nuts-and-bolts ingredients, it seems, are dirt cheap.

Witness a Florida county's going-out-of-business sale Friday. The government isn't shutting down, but instead is selling its supply of surplus punch-card ballots and other now-antiquated Votomatic equipment that was relegated to the scrap heap after the 2000 Bush-Gore presidential election.

More than 1,100 of the Votomatic machines - which resemble a fold-out aluminum briefcase with legs - went on sale for a mere $10 apiece. Also available: 1,000 plastic ballot frames, 80 steel ballot boxes and an assortment of electoral memorabilia.

"We have had very good interest, both from county employees and the general public," said Robert George, a purchasing agent for Collier County.

Three of the old Votomatic machines have been donated to the Collier County Museum for posterity, said Supervisor of Elections Jennifer Edwards. By May, she expects the county's full supply of optical scanner voting machines to arrive, at a cost of nearly $4.3 million.

-- Bob in WI (bjwick@hotmail.com), April 06, 2002