DeLand, FL – A series of public meetings have been scheduled to show Volusia County’s voters and election workers how its elections will be done starting in 2016.
5 town halls – all taking place between November 9th and 21st – will show off some of the 163 voting machines the Volusia County Council bought earlier this month from Elections Systems & Software of Nebraska for $2.2 million.
Those machines – approved during the VCC’s July 16th meeting – will replace the current voting machines made by Dominion Voting Systems of Ohio that have been used in every Volusia-run election since 1994.
Supervisor of Elections Ann McFall told the council during that meeting that they started noticing breakdowns with the current machines in 2013, but decided to wait until 2015 to purchase new machines because of the 2014 gubernatorial election.
The ES & S equipment will be used at all 125 Volusia precincts, with some being kept as backups in case of malfunctions. The contract with ES & S also covers the costs of maintenance and support needed to keep them running.
Volusia County Assistant Supervisor of Elections Lisa Lewis says the new machines will start arriving in September and will make its debut in next March’s presidential primary.
“We want the public to come and see what the new equipment’s gonna be like, so coming out on Election Day is not just a surprise,” Lewis added. “They’ll have a little heads-up on how it works.”
The current ones will still be used for any other county-run elections until then.
All 5 town hall locations are the same as the early voting sites, with the first taking place November 9th between 5pm and 7pm at Ormond Beach Regional Library.
New Smyrna Beach Regional Library will have its town hall at the same time on November 12th, as will the Volusia County Courthouse’s 2nd Floor Training Room on November 18th.
Daytona Beach’s City Island Library will have their town hall November 14th between 2pm and 4pm. The final one is at Deltona Regional Library on November 21st between 9am and 11am.
The ES & S equipment is expected to be easier to use for handicapped people or those with special needs. It also comes with a wireless modem feature that county officials say should be far more reliable that the dial-up modem in place with the current voting machines.
The new machines will continue to use paper ballots in accordance with state law, but will offer a touch-screen computer option for those who can’t fill out paper ballots for whatever reason. That computer will print out a ballot that can then be given to precinct workers.
McFall told the VCC the new equipment should lead to faster ballot processing and faster tabulation, all of which should lead to quicker results on Election Day.
Lewis noted that the voting process should basically be the same for voters as it was with the old machines, but poll workers will notice some big changes between the old setup and the new one.
Photos of the actual equipment above and below are courtesy of the Volusia County Supervisor of Elections.
DS 850 scanner tabulator
ExpressVote touch screen system
DS 200 ballot scanner
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