County Purchases New Voting Equipment

Tuesday morning at the Judge Edd B. Keyes building, 113 Beauregard, commissioner’s court pondered purchasing more voting machines.

“We were contacted last Tuesday afternoon with an opportunity to purchase some [electronic voting] equipment at a 20 percent discount,” said Elections Administrator, Vonda Hudson. “There was an overage in their stock. So if action is going to be taken it needs to be done today. We can save a significant amount of money if we go ahead and purchase some additional units,” Hudson said when addressing commissioner’s court Tuesday morning.

In the last election many voting polls were open, giving voters more options as to where they could vote, making it more convenient.  Besides requests for donuts and coffee, the long lines that formed waiting to actually vote was the chief complaint heard from many.

“We did need more machines; we had plenty of parking at Precinct 230…our problem was access to the machines…”  Sid Clemmer, election judge told LIVE! in an interview in January . “We were processing people about one every 45 seconds. They can’t vote one every 45 seconds.”

The county purchases voting equipment from Hart InterCivic who are providers of the eSlate machine that is now being utilized in the county voting process.The discounted price for one eSlate machine is $2760.

 “I think having additional equipment would help us meet what we are working toward,” Hudson said. Which is more efficient and accurate voting.

There was some discussion as to the number of machines needed and if the timing to purchase them is right.

“If there’s a deal today, there will be a deal later on down the road in my experience,” said Bill Ford, who was leery of the company’s week long sale. “Are you sure they’re not car salesmen?” he joked.

After much discussion among the commissioners court, the motion was passed to purchase 25 new voting machines for $69,000.