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Mahoning County to get $2.35 million for voting equipment
New scanners will be ready for general election
YOUNGSTOWN
Mahoning County is receiving $2.35 million from the state for new election equipment.
The money will be spent to replace 250 voting-tabulation scanners at its precinct locations.
“This is a great deal for the county,” said Joyce Kale-Pesta, board of elections director. “We won’t have to worry about replacing this equipment for 12 years.”
The scanners – which read ballots at polling locations after voters insert them into the machines – will be delivered in August and be ready for the November general election, Kale-Pesta said.
The scanners are being purchased from Election Systems & Software of Omaha, Neb., the county’s longtime voting equipment vendor.
The scanners are expected to work for about 12 years, Kale-Pesta said.
The county also is trading in its existing scanners for about 220 electronic poll books that allow those with disabilities to vote privately curbside without having to go inside polling locations, she said.
The state last year approved providing about $105 million to the state’s 88 counties to purchase voting equipment and have it ready ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
Mahoning County returned to paper ballots during the November 2011 general election after nine years of using electronic touch-screen voting. The touch-screen system had issues, most notably during the 2004 presidential election when some machines didn’t work, wrong votes were registered because of calibration problems and there were difficulties starting and shutting down the machines.
Before 2002, when the county went to electronic touch-screen machines, it used paper ballots for 17 years.
Trumbull County is switching from a touch-screen voting system to paper ballots for the May primary election with the county getting all or nearly all of the $1.3 million cost for it from state funding.