Top left, clockwise: Christopher Deluzio; Maryn Formley; Ron Bandes; Marian Schneider; W. Ben Towne; and Rich Garella. (Courtesy photos)
The respondents answered six questions about voting security, vendor concerns and what the county Board of Elections should consider when making the choice.
by J. Dale Shoemaker, Public Source
When you show up to cast your ballot on Election Day, you may not think about the equipment used to record and count your votes.
But experts say the equipment is crucial to the practice of American democracy. If we aren’t confident that our votes are counted accurately, they argue, how can we be confident in the rest of the system?
Allegheny County is in the midst of purchasing new voting equipment. The Board of Elections is nearing a decision on which vendor’s voting system the county should buy. That vote could happen as soon as Wednesday at the Board of Elections’ 5 p.m. meeting. As the board has been deliberating, it has considered factors like security, a voter’s ability to verify that the vote they cast is the vote that gets counted, and ease of use for people of different abilities.
A few things are certain: The new system will incorporate paper ballots in some form and it will be costly. The state government, as part of a lawsuit settlement, has directed all counties to implement a voting system with a paper trail by the 2020 primaries. The total replacement cost could range from $9.3 million to $22.8 million with annual maintenance costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
PublicSource reached out to more than a dozen voting equipment experts as well as election officials and fair election advocates. We asked what advice they have for the Board of Elections and what Allegheny County residents ought to be paying attention to. Six people responded to our survey.
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE AT:
https://www.publicsource.org/ahead-of-voting-machine-decision-six-experts-and-advocates-weigh-in-on-allegheny-countys-impending-purchase/