Henrico County has agreed to pay $1.2 million to buy new voting equipment after state authorities decided hundreds of machines the county already owns are no longer fit for use. Registrar Mark J. Coakley announced the purchase to the county’s Board of Supervisors at its Tuesday meeting. The State Board of Elections voted earlier this month to disallow the use of WinVote touch-screen voting machines due to security concerns. Henrico owned about 800 of the machines and only a handful of others. The county will replace the touch-screen machines with optical scan devices. To use the new machines, voters will fill out paper ballots, then feed them into the machines.
… The county electoral board authorized negotiations with voting machine provider Election Systems & Software even before the state finalized the decertification process, and talks with the new provider began the day after the decertification. At about 3 p.m. Tuesday, Henrico County officials inked a deal for new machines. The county will buy 105 scanners and 105 Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant machines for $1,060,400. It will also buy 1,000 voting booths for $111,850.
Saturday trainings for county election workers ahead of the June 9 primary are also included in the contract.
The state has chosen four companies from whom local governments are allowed to buy voting machines. The county was already using Election Systems & Software for absentee voting. Hanover, Richmond and Chesterfield will all be using the equipment as well, Coakley said.
Full Article: Henrico to spend $1.2 million to replace outdated voting equipment – Richmond.com: Henrico County News.