COLORADO SPRINGS — Secretary of State Mike Coffman announced Thursday that he wants to shift the bulk of voting-machine testing away from his office and to the federal government.
Coffman said in a statement that the federal Election Assistance Commission, created in 2002, has now developed sufficient standards and capabilities to conduct rigorous tests of the controversial machines.
He said the state shouldn’t duplicate the commission’s work by running its own identical tests, but he left open the possibility that the secretary of state’s office could conduct additional tests on the machines for Colorado-specific requirements.
The testing of voting machines has come under scrutiny in recent weeks after Coffman announced he had certified only a few of the machines used in Colorado, leaving 53 counties without some or all of the machines they use to record votes or count ballots.
The panel that conducted the tests for Coffman’s office originally recommended that none of the machines be certified.
