Discussions to purchase new voting machines in Madison County resume

It’s been years since the Madison County Election Commission purchased new voting machines. There were discussions in 2019 and now those conversations are resuming.

According to Madison County Election Commission Officials around 14 years ago was the last time voting machines were purchased.

Election administrator, Lori Lott, says a lot of elections ballots were cast on those machines in the past years, causing wear and tear.

“They were already talking about voting machines prior to my employment here. Our voting machines are, 2006 they were purchased, so they are a little old," says Lott.

Only a few community members showed up to voice their concerns about the old and possible new machines.

One topic was the need for a paper trail.

"My board will be making that decision though as to what voting machines that we will get. It is important, you make it easy on the voters, something simple. They are looking at a paper trail." adds Lott.

The commission gave an estimate to the county commission budget committee for the price of new machines, but they hope to use funds from the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) for the purchase.

“We have $340,000 of HAVA money set aside and then we are asking the budget committee to help us out and fund those machines," says Lott.

The election commission did talk about a day to have vendors come in and they ask questions about new voting machines, so they can begin the bidding process.