PRIORITIES: Palm Beach Went for Coloring Books, iPads Over Vote-Machine Upgrades.

The company behind the Palm Beach machines says official claims that they overheated are false. “The idea that this equipment is at fault is a mischaracterization,” Kay Stimson, vice president of government affairs for Dominion Voting Systems, told RealClearInvestigations. “There were no reports of overheating machines during the recount. We had engineers on the ground there, available 24/7, and they heard nothing from anyone at Palm Beach County.”

Three statewide races – for governor, U.S. senator and agriculture commissioner – were close enough to require a statewide recount this year. Because of vote-counting problems, Palm Beach election workers were forced to miss the Thursday deadline for recounting votes. A circuit judge extended the count to this Tuesday, although remaining doubts over the winners appeared to have been settled over the weekend.

The counting controversy in Palm Beach seems certain to endure, however.

Problems have occurred despite federal election security funding that the county has been given to keep voting systems running correctly — part of the millions doled out to states under the Help America Vote Act of 2002, or HAVA.

Records show Palm Beach County this year used its $909,000 share of HAVA funds to buy iPads for voters to check in at the polls. A 2009 audit of the county’s elections department found the agency improperly spent $48,000 in HAVA money on coloring books.

Sheesh.