The saga of new voting machines in Stark County took another turn this week as the county’s Board of Elections voted to go ahead with its planned purchase of $6.45 million in new equipment from Dominion after the county’s three commissioners, all Republican, attempted to block the deal after Trump supporters lobbed hundreds of conspiracy-laden complaints at them.
The Board of Elections had researched possible vendors for a year and came away with a deal to use Dominion. But the county commissioners cratered to public complaint and, while skirting the issue of the lies lobbed at Dominion over last year’s presidential election, discovered newly-found financial reasons to oppose approving the purchase. They voted last month, without issuing comment, to reject the BOE’s deal, which the BOE will now nevertheless proceed with.
Telling Ideastream this week that they will sue the commissioners if necessary, Stark County Board of Elections Chairman Chairman Samuel Ferruccio said, “I think that it’s pretty clear at this point, this is our selection and we need to move forward. We want to be in a position to have our new equipment for the general election at this point, so time is of the essence.”
Dominion today filed a defamation suit against Fox News for allegedly spreading debunked lies and conspiracy theories about its voting machines in an effort to boost falling ratings.
This article appears in Mar 24 – Apr 6, 2021.
