Douglas County is one of eight counties that will be testing new voting machines this election season. The effort is part of an attempt by the Colorado secretary of state’s office to possibly unite all of the state under one system. As part of that initiative, four small counties and four large counties, including Douglas, were asked to pilot next-generation equipment. The other test counties are Adams, Denver, Garfield, Gilpin, Jefferson, Mesa and Teller. They will be trying out four different vendors. According to the secretary of state’s office, the upgrades to newer machines will cost about $10 million to $15 million and the counties will be dividing the cost, if the program moves forward following the test period. There is no charge to the counties during the test period.
Douglas County will be testing the Hart Verity system. The system offers a number of ballot setup, operational and audit advances over the previous Hart system, which the county had been using.
“Like the other seven counties, we are about to discover how each of the vendor’s products perform in battle,” Douglas County Clerk and Recorder Merlin Klotz said.
… Klotz said the move to a single system across the state may pose some challenges. “Can the same system used by Douglas be cost-effective for Sedgwick with only 2,500 residents?” he asked. “Can Colorado risk reliance on the financial health of a single vendor for the execution of elections over the next 10 to 20 years? Would a single vendor hold Colorado hostage on cost of acquisition and support?”
Full Article: News | Castle Rock Colorado | Castlerocknewspress.net.