Delaware voters soon will cast their ballots on new voting machines. But exactly when – and what those machines will look like – remains to be seen. A state task force created last year to study the issue is still debating what bells and whistles the new voting machines should feature – four months after it was supposed to make a final recommendation to the Delaware General Assembly. … First deployed in 1996, Delaware’s 1,600 voting machines are among the oldest in the nation and have outlived their expected lifespan, creating a growing list of potential problems. The computer operating system used to create electronic ballots, for instance, is no longer supported by Microsoft, meaning security updates are no longer available. The outdated equipment also precludes the General Assembly from adopting the kind of no-excuse early voting currently used by 34 other states. And Delaware is now one of five states using voting machines that never let voters see a paper copy of their ballot to ensure its accuracy.
“All of these potential problems increasingly result in the disaffection of voters and their whole confidence in our election system,” said Sandy Spence, advocacy chair for the League of Women Voters of Delaware.
… The task force is now in the final stages of issuing a request for proposals from voting machine makers – the first step in a bidding process that could extend several months.
“We initially hoped to have new machines in place by 2018, but now it’s looking increasingly like that won’t happen until 2020,” she said.
Full Article: Delaware urged to speed up hunt for new voting machines.