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Requesting that the City Council President Anna C. Verna and Mayor John F. Street officially request the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority to affirmatively review capital dollars which were borrowed in 1992 and remain unspent and to evaluate whether these funds can be re-allocated to fully support the purchase of new voting machines for the City of Philadelphia.
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WHEREAS, The need to replace the City's outdated and cumbersome mechanical lever voting machines with new electronic voting machines has been documented in the 1995 City of Philadelphia Election Reform Task Force Final Report and in the Council Committee on Law and Government Committee Report on Resolution No. 960894; and
WHEREAS, On November 3, 1998, the electorate of the City of Philadelphia overwhelmingly approved a referendum by a vote of 149,573 to 43,699 which authorized the City to procure new electronic voting machines; and
WHEREAS, This affirmative vote by the electorate triggers a state statutory requirement that the new voting system be fully implemented within 103 weeks after the approval of the referendum (see, 25 P.S. 3031.4(b)); and
WHEREAS, During the summer of 1999, the procurement process was initiated and a Request for Proposals was issued to voting machine vendors; and
WHEREAS, The cost to purchase 3,500 electronic voting machines is projected to be $21 million and this funding has been proposed by the City Administration in the FY 2001 capital budget; and
WHEREAS, In 1992, the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority ("PICA") borrowed funds, on the City's behalf, to pay for various emergency capital projects; and
WHEREAS, During the November 12, 1997 public hearing before the Council Committee on Law and Government which assessed the need for new electronic voting machines, Mr. Joseph C. Vignola -- the executive director of PICA -- testified that some of these borrowed funds remain unspent; and
WHEREAS, At this...
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