Philadelphia's budget plan calls for purchasing new voting machines, but some City Council members are balking at the $22 million expense.
The request for new voting machines is based on the age of the current machines, now about a decade old, said Greg Irving of the City Commissioners.
"The current voting technology is now 13 years old, it has seen an increase in the number of power failures and printer problems," Irving said. "We also have issues in election board and committeeperson races with missing write in tapes because our machines only produce one copy of write in votes."
Council President Darrell Clarke says he would rather put the capital funding into other projects such as repairs to police stations.
"I'm not feeling the $22 million request," he said.
The machines also have been used in the city suburbs and the state of Delaware.
