New voting machines mean retirement for tenders of lever machines

ATLANTA - As Georgia&#39;s new voting machines come in, Bob Martin is going out. <br> <br> Martin has maintained and programmed the old lever-style mechanical voting machines in Athens-Clarke County and 68 other counties for 25 years. <br> <br> But he and his wife have decided to retire along with their voting machines. <br> <br> The machines they once tended now have found homes in other states&#39; polling places. <br> <br> Martin says he enjoyed tending to the machines and working with voters and poll workers. <br> <br> He and his wife were instrumental in solving problems with the mechanical devices in elections of the past. <br> <br> Former Athens-Clarke County elections supervisor Dot Barrett says Martin always made sure the job was done right. <br> <br> Making sure the mechanical machines worked correctly wasn&#39;t an easy task. <br> <br> The lever-style machines had an intricate process that would take many about two hours to be able to correctly program. <br> <br> Martin could complete the task in about 30 minutes. <br> <br> He says he&#39;s skeptical of the new touchscreen voting system because of his loyalty to the lever machines. <br> <br> But he&#39;s interested in seeing how they work when they get their first test Tuesday.