After months of debate and hand-wringing over the future accuracy and secu­rity of elections in Bucks County, what many people saw coming a long time ago is now official: The new voting machines the county needed to have in place by next month’s primary in order to meet a federal deadline won’t be any­where near polling places come May 16.

     For one more election, at least, the county will rely on its 50-year-old, tried-and-true mechanical vot­ing machines. That’s more good news than bad since the integrity of the lever machines has never been an issue. We can’t say that about the new electronic machines the county recently decided to pur­chase and which will be in place for the November general election.

     As far as the primary goes, we’re satisfied that the county made every effort to satisfy the voting law.  Bucks and other coun­ties were hampered because fed­eral and state officials took so long to certify the machines that the counties could buy.  When the commissioners finally settled on a purchase, the vendor said the 700 new machines — costing about $5 million — couldn’t be delivered in time.

     Appeals have been made to Washington to extend the dead­line for compliance with the new law. A law that, while well-inten­tioned, should have focused sole­ly on the few areas of the coun­try where problems with voting have been clearly demonstrated.

     Bucks County had no such problems. The problems here arose because of the law, not in the absence of it.