Carbon voting machines on way

Carbon County is one step closer to making the changeover from electronic voting machines to paper ballots and scanners.

On Thursday, the county commissioners accepted the quote for the purchase of the new voting equipment, software user licenses and related services from Dominion Voting Systems Inc. of Denver, Colorado.

The purchase of the 55 new voting machines and related materials will cost the county $421,753.31 plus shipping costs and $9,000 for two on-site support services for the general election, as well as $29,600 for the annual license costs and $13,675 for annual hardware warranty costs on the first anniversary of the effective date.

This purchase also includes a discount of $212,000 for the machines, said Commissioner William O’Gurek, a member of the county election board.

Carbon County already received $71,394.86 from the state to help cover the purchase.

“There are a lot of systems out there and they bid through COSTARS and that bid includes a discount to this county based on the number of scanners we are buying,” he said.

The county is now hoping to have the machines in time for the general election, and if time permits, send out a few to display them around the county as a way to educate the public on the new voting machines.

Carbon County’s election board, in June, decided on the new machines, which include one precinct scanner and one ADA accessible ballot marking device for each precinct.

The board, at that time, explained that the new voting process will include paper ballots to meet the state requirement of having a paper trail during the election.

Each voter will enter their voting place, sign the voter book and will be given a writing utensil and a folder containing the ballot. Privacy booths will be placed throughout the voting area for voting.

Once the ballot is completed, the voter will take it to the scanner, to be scanned. The ballot will automatically be dropped in a bin attached to the scanner after it is scanned.

An additional photo will be taken of each completed ballot. Poll workers will not scan the ballots; it must be completed by the voter.

A tablet will be used for an ADA-accessible marking device, with voting completed on a touch screen. When the ballot is finished, a copy of the completed ballot will be printed. Then, the voter will take the ballot to the scanner.

In the past, voters needed to wait in line to vote after they signed in because of the number of machines and voter cards. Now, once they are identified, the voting will be in a random order. If the person completes his or her ballot before the person ahead of them, they do not need to wait to scan the ballot.

The data from the ballots will be stored on a USB card inside the scanner. When the polls close, the USB card will be removed and returned.

Paper ballots and materials will be provided by the county.

Carbon County currently has 125 electronic voting machines, which were purchased in 2006 under a state requirement.

Following the last presidential election, Gov. Tom Wolf announced that all counties in the state would be required to update their machines to have a voter-verifiable paper system after federal authorities said Russian hackers targeted at least 21 states during the election.

Pennsylvania was one of 13 states that had machines that didn’t allow voters to double-check if their votes were recorded properly.