St. Charles County is just about to close a deal to purchase hundreds of new, state-of-the-art voting machines. But don’t worry taxpayers — the cost won’t be passed on to you. Like a squirrel storing nuts for the approaching winter, St. Charles county elections director Rich Chrismer has been salting away money raised by leasing out his machines to other election authorities throughout the county. He says that means he’s now been able to save up the million dollars or so needed to purchase 260 voting machines, split evenly between optical scan and ADA-compliant versions.
“Other counties in the state of Missouri are asking for bond issues and taxes to pay for these new voting machines,” said Chrismer. “I didn’t do it that way. I did it the way the government suggested by collecting money over the years.”
The purchase from Unisyn Voting Solutions still needs final approval from the full council — if that happens at next month’s meeting, the new machines would be ready to go for the first election of 2014.
Source: St. Charles County To Buy New Voting Machines « CBS St. Louis.