Efforts to ensure that all of New Jersey's voting machines produce a paper record of votes generated responses ranging from "too expensive" to "don't fix what ain't broken" last week as the issue played out at polling places, in court, and at the Statehouse.

Just don't look for the county to collect the money any time soon.

“The machines are large and heavy. They’re left in the polling places for a few days until a trucking company can pick them up,” Andrew W. Appel, a computer-science professor, testified. “Many of the polling sites are unlocked. Anyone … can open it up and replace the software inside with fraudulent software.”

At stake is whether more than 10,000 of the machines used throughout the state are accurate and reliable. If Superior Court Judge Linda R. Feinberg determines the machines are problematic, they could be decertified for use in New Jersey.

Sitting in a storeroom at Northampton County's voter registration office are 600 worthless voting machines the county paid $2.1 million to get.

A few years back, in a high profile series of lawsuits, a lawyer representing some folks accused of drunk driving asked the manufacturer of a breathalyzer testing machine for access to the product's source code, so experts could review it to make sure it functioned properly. The company refused, citing trade secrets.

In the clearest sign yet that he has dramatically shifted strategies since falling behind in the U.S. Senate recount, Republican Norm Coleman's campaign said Monday that it will push to have all 12,000 absentee ballots rejected in the election reconsidered and to ensure that those wrongly set aside are counted.

DETROIT -- Absentee ballots go out to voters next week, and they're in such demand they could decide the mayoral primary that a Wednesday poll suggests is becoming a three-man race.

The court will decide the constitutionality of a provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that seeks to protect minority voting rights by requiring a broad set of states and jurisdictions where discrimination was once routine to receive federal approval before altering any of their voting procedures.