KETCHUM, Idaho (AP) - Idaho’s Blaine County will offer new, user-friendly voting machines in the November election after county commissioners voted Tuesday to use $30,000 from a contingency fund for the 15 new machines.
“We have all the funding available,” County Clerk JoLynn Drage told the Idaho Mountain Express (https://bit.ly/22Vg0pS).
The $30,000 will be combined with money from the state’s Election Consolidation Fund for a total purchase of $58,000, Drage said.
The new ExpressVote machines use updated technology and will be easier to use than the 10-year-old AutoMARK machines, which weigh about 80 pounds, Drage said. The newer machines weigh about 20 pounds.
During her presentation to county leaders, Drage had a mock voting table with the AutoMARK machine to show how difficult they are to handle compared to the newer machines.
The AutoMARK machines were designed specifically with disabled voters in mind, as are the new machines.
“(Both) these machines make it so they can vote independently,” Drage said. “It’s also required by law.”
The new machines can’t be used in the May election because ballots have already been ordered for the AutoMARK machines.
Election Clerk Amy Rivkin confirmed that the ExpressVote machines will be rolled out in November.
“We’re interested to see how it’s received by the voters,” she said. “We would like to work toward only using the ExpressVote machines.”
The new machines will be in 15 polling locations. A 16th voter precinct is a mail-in precinct only without a polling location, Drage said.
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Information from: Idaho Mountain Express, https://www.mtexpress.com
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