They've helped elect everything from presidents to township trustees, and now they can be yours. But does anybody really want to buy 600 obsolete electronic voting machines?

The Allen County Election Board wants to find out.

The board Thursday agreed to make the MicroVote General Corp. machines available for purchase on the Internet in hopes of recovering at least a little of the $4,000 spent on each machine, some of which are nearly 20 years old.

The age of the machines has become a problem, board members said, because it is increasingly difficult and expensive to maintain them.

Also, the lack of features for deaf and blind voters means they no longer comply with federal disability laws.

Recycling the machines would cost county taxpayers about $6,000, the board said. They could be donated to nonprofit groups that send voting machines to developing countries, but the county would have to pay for the transportation.

The county's Purchasing Department will supervise the sale, which must still be approved by the County Commissioners.

In other business, the board agreed to post campaign-finance reports on the department's Web page so the public can more easily see who is contributing to which candidate - and how much.

Reports from 2008 have already been posted, and the board hopes to post future reports by each filing deadline.

The reports can be found at the county's Web site, www.allencounty.us, and clicking on the Election Board under the “community” heading.