State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

Voting Technology Needs an Upgrade, But Who Will Pay for It?

Governing: The upkeep of voting equipment doesn’t usually figure into a candidate’s campaign rhetoric. But when Nellie Gorbea ran for secretary of state in Rhode Island in 2014, she pledged to make her state’s elections “fair, fast and accurate.” That meant replacing machines purchased in the late 1990s that were breaking down from age and years of use.

“We had equipment that was literally falling apart at polling locations,” Gorbea says. “People would try to put their ballot in the ballot tabulator and it would stop working.” In the presidential primaries this spring, a failed tabulator at one location caused a 45-minute delay before officials could wheel in another one.

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