Lawmakers in Italy are not pleased with a new fingerprint voting system in parliament because... they have to actually be there to cast their vote.
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LISA MULLINS: Voting in Italy is becoming more high tech, too. The Italian parliament is implementing a new electronic fingerprint voting system among its members, but dozens of lawmakers in Italy are refusing to take part. They say it's going to mean spending too much time in the chamber. At the moment, some Italian politicians get their colleagues to vote on their behalf. Politicians stretch across the desks of absent buddies and press their voting lights for them. So about a third of the members of Italy's parliament are refusing to get fingerprinted for this new system. Some of them argue that it's an invasion of privacy. Others are more reluctant because the police already have their prints. You see, certain members of Italy's parliament have been convicted of crimes ranging from corruption to biting a policeman's ankle. But now politicians are being offered an extra incentive to get fingerprinted – an hour-long coffee break every day. Extra bonus? They get a two-hour break on Wednesdays. That's all to make up for the increased time that Italian politicians would have to spend in Parliament casting their own votes.
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