The Help America Vote Act of 2002 basically required states to buy electronic voting machines in a relatively short time frame and gave them federal dollars to

The Help America Vote Act of 2002 basically required states to buy electronic voting machines in a relatively short time frame and gave them federal dollars to help. It was a response to the "hanging chads" of the 2000 election. There was not previously a huge market for voting machines and the three or four existing vendors sucked. The law had strict requirements about making the machines available to people with disabilities, but not so much to say about security or reliability or robustness of the platform.