Ars Technica: Primary and early e-voting problems point to gathering storm

According to my sources, many election officials…have now come to a private understanding that they blew it, big-time, by buying these systems and rushing them out in what amounts to an untested alpha (not even beta!) state. But if they publicly admit that they were wrong, then the voting machine vendors will withdraw their support and the counties will be left to fly solo on election day. Because of the kind of inadequate training outlined in the ESI report, this would basically shut down the mid-term elections, because county election workers at all levels from poll workers to sysadmins to Board of Elections officials would be unable to run an election without massive vendor support.

In short, don’t expect to hear any mea culpas or backpedalling from county or state election officials at any point before Nov. 7th. These folks are now on the hook for tens of millions of dollars worth of equipment that simply does not, and cannot, work as advertised, and if they own up to this publicly then what little hope they still have of holding real elections on the 7th will go right out the window along with the withdrawn vendor support.