The Marshall County Commissioners have approved a change to voting equipment that was granted preliminary funding approval last week.
In preparation for November’s General Election, the Marshall County Clerk’s office requested an upgrade to several facets of the county’s voting machines. Microvote, the company contracting with the county for the equipment, says it can have the devices updated in time for the fall’s ballot counting.
Clerk Debbie Vandemark says there are plenty of machines that need work.
“There are 94 voting machines that need upgraded,” says Vandemark. “They’re outdated.”
The changes come after a storage problem was encountered during this month’s primary election. The brief hiccup delayed counting the ballots directly from the tally card in the machines, instead requiring the devices to be linked to a central computer to finalize the ballot totals.
Microvote would refurbish the machines and add updates that would improve the look of the candidate selection screen, and allow ballots to be tallied more quickly through additional storage space.
In addition, the Clerk’s office was also requesting funds for the purchase of additional poll pads. Because of the record turnout on Election Day, lines were present at the polling locations. Implementing the extra devices at a couple of locations is expected to speed lines during November’s election.
Vandemark says this will even the score at the available vote center locations.
“That will put two in every vote center,” says Vandemark.
The Marshall County Council approved funding for the changes at their meeting last week. The Commissioners gave approval during their Monday morning meeting.
Paying for the upgrades will be included in 2017’s budget.
