What 's the Value of "Certification" for Voting Machines?

Image by DoubleSpeak with Matthew and Peter Slutsky via Flickr

Last week, a Pennsylvania court ruled in favor of a county that got burned purchasing electronic voting machines from a "certified" company that has since disappeared.

Coalition for Voting Integrity News & Opinion: Northampton wins $1.7 million voting machine judgment: "Northampton wins $1.7 million voting machine judgment
County doubts it'll collect from Advanced Voting Solutions
By Tom Coombe, Morning Call, January 31, 2009

Northampton County won a nearly $2 million judgment Friday against a company that sold it faulty voting machines in 2006. Just don't look for the county to collect the money any time soon. Following a brief hearing in county court, Judge Stephen Baratta said Advanced Voting Solutions of Frisco, Texas, must pay $1.9 million, plus court costs and interest, to the county. Now the county needs to figure out how to get money from a company that seems to have vanished."