Maine taxpayers have paid millions to digitize court records, but more than 9 years later, it still hasn’t happened. From the Portland Press Herald:

The state has spent more than $17 million to date trying to catch up, according to data provided Friday by Barbara Cardone, a spokesperson for the Maine Judicial Branch.

“It’s years and millions of dollars in taxpayer funding later, with very little to show for it,” said American Civil Liberties Union of Maine Chief Counsel Zachary Heiden. “How can we as a democracy function if the public doesn’t know what’s going on?”

This shouldn’t be that hard to fix, if we make it a priority. The private sector handles far larger and far more complex digital record systems every day, likely for a fraction of the funds apparently squandered so far in this effort.

We need to do better.

Read the full story here:

Maine has spent millions to digitize court records — and they’re still mostly not online