The machines were old and in bad shape, and a lot of the voting officials seemed pretty incompetent. Despite his highly critical series, Trombley says he was unable to get political leaders worked up about the issue. Trombley also noticed that no other news organization has devoted much attention to the issue in the eleven years since his series. But he admits the story has an inherent flaw. I think it's just not sexy enough.
Nothing is done until there's a crisis.
But even Philip Johnston, who may have lost an election to bad voting-machine technology, doesn't blame the press for overlooking the issue. Still, journalists can perform a public service by informing people about voting problems and prodding state and federal lawmakers to act. The experts we spoke with stressed that journalists need to look at more than just the problem of pregnant chads. The majority said they disliked the system after voting, complaining that the type was too small and that the layout was confusing. More troubling, even though each person was given instructions on exactly how to vote in each simulated race, only thirteen of the subjects turned in error-free ballots.