The Buncombe County Commissioners were asked Tuesday to support the purchase of new voting machines. The ones used in recent elections were described as temperamental and high-maintenance because they’re at the end of their useful life. In America, we are too courteous to distrust government, so nobody demanded any kind of demonstration of how the new machines would be tamper-proof. It doesn’t help that there is only one vendor. When Commissioner Ellen Frost asked why, she got a predictable non-answer. When options for trading in the old machines were discussed, Holly Jones suggested Nicaragua as a buyer.