The Office of State Procurement on behalf of Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin has issued an intent to award the RFP for Acquisition of New Voting Equipment to Dominion Voting Systems, Inc.. The State of Louisiana intends to enter into a contract with Dominion for the replacement of all early voting and Election Day voting machines. “We are very excited about new voting technology in our state,” said Secretary of State Ardoin. “Considering voting machines are purchased every 15-20 years, we anticipated this process would be highly scrutinized and possibly contentious. We appreciate the expert advice of the Office of State Procurement which has worked with my office to ensure the process has been fair and equitable for all bidders and we look forward to negotiating a final agreement with Dominion in the near future.”
Once a final contract is negotiated, Louisiana can begin replacing approximately 10,000 machines and replacing them with smaller, more secure, touch screen models that provide a voter verified paper receipt to enhance post-election recounts or audits when necessary. Louisiana, like many other states, purchased its voting equipment back in 2005 when federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) dollars were first sent to states. Congress released approximately $5.889 million in additional HAVA funding to be used for technology improvements.
To date, the Secretary of State’s Office has invested approximately $500,000 in self-generated dollars to jump-start voting technology efforts at the local level including secure laptops for vote tabulation and additional cyber-security measures at registrar of voters offices. An additional allocation of $3.5 million has already been approved by the Legislature for this purchase. The federal HAVA dollars provided to Louisiana require a $294,400 state match bringing the potential total dollars available for voting equipment to almost $10 million dollars.
Full Article: New voting machines may be headed to Louisiana – News15 | Lafayette, LA.