Today, January 31, at their regularly scheduled meeting, the Centre County Board of Commissioners discussed the purchase of voting machines under the new standards for security, auditability, and accessibility set by the Department of State in April 2018.
Centre County’s voting machines currently have a verifiable paper record and so will the new machines.
Following the Department of State’s Voting System Expo in State College, the Board hosted a Town Hall meeting at CPI on December 10 to offer residents the opportunity to engage with voting system vendors and observe demonstrations. Considering feedback received from residents and poll workers, the Board of Elections has made a recommendation for the Board of Commissioners to purchase new voting machines from Election Systems & Software (ES&S). The Board will consider purchasing 100 DS200s and 100 ExpressVote machines. The DS200s will replace the M100s and the ExpressVotes will replace the AutoMARKs. Certified in 2018, the DS200 and ExpressVote meet both the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and PA Department of State’s updated security and accessibility standards.
On Tuesday, February 5, the Board of Commissioners will consider approval of $860,571.75 for the voting machines and $332,000 for a 5-year hardware and software maintenance agreement.
The County has over 107,000 registered voters and 91 precincts where the current ES&S machines have been in use since November 2008.
More information on the DS200:
https://www.essvote.com/products/ds200/
More information on the ExpressVote:
https://www.essvote.com/products/expressvote/