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YOUNGSTOWN

Votes will be counted faster at the Mahoning County Board of Elections thanks to the $258,500 lease-to-purchase of two high-speed optical-scanner machines, according to the board director.

The current machines have issues with paper jams and automatically stop counting ballots when they find ones with write-in candidates’ names or if ballots have votes for two candidates for one position, said Director Joyce Kale-Pesta.

Those ballots must be removed by hand for additional ballots to be counted by three older optical- scanners at the board. That has caused delays in counting votes.

The new machines move the write-ins and the double-vote ballots to a location on the scanners while counting other paper votes without stopping.

“Counting on election night will be faster because it won’t stop like the machines do now,” Kale-Pesta said.

The machines are expected by the May primary.

That will allow the board to use the machines for two lower-turnout elections, this year’s primary and the November general elections, before the 2014 election in which turnout likely is to be greater, Kale-Pesta said.

The $258,500 cost will be paid over the next five years to ES&S. That Omaha, Neb., company has sold the county its voting equipment for several years, including paper ballots in the 1990s, electronic-voting machines in 2001, and back to paper a couple of years ago.

After the five-year lease, the equipment will be owned by the board of elections, Kale-Pesta said. The new machines should last about 10 years, she said.

The machines cost $111,500 each. There also are costs for installation, training and warranties. The board is receiving a $24,000 credit for the two older machines — about 8 to 10 years old each — it owns. The board leased a third scanner last year from ES&S that it will return to the company.

The four-member board unanimously voted Tuesday to pay for the new machines over a five-year period at a cost of $51,700 annually.