The Knox County board approved a bid of nearly half a million dollars from Government Business Systems to upgrade aging voting equipment, but the county will have to finance the purchase and pay interest on it because it was not budgeted for.
“Our machines are at 20 years plus now for voting. A lot of our surrounding counties have already moved and had a couple of elections under their belt,” said County Clerk Scott Erickson, noting it’s difficult to find parts for the current equipment and support for it is limited.
GBS is the county’s current vendor and submitted the lowest of three bids received for the upgrade.
The county’s current voting equipment saves votes directly to memory cards. With the new equipment, voters will use touchscreen machines to select their choices. Then the machines will print out paper ballots for voters to verify, with the paper copies scanned into an optical scanner for tallying.
“You're still getting that electronic experience but you're getting the safety measure of having that paper ballot there,” Erickson said. “That is, someone can see it and say, yep, I made sure that I voted.”
Erickson said voters can still use paper ballots if they prefer, but the new system is more ADA-compliant.
“If someone came in with a different ability, they were blind, they were deaf, it gives them the ability with these electronic machines to be able to vote without any assistance from someone else,” Erickson said. “So it gives them a lot more of their privacy and their independence back.”
The county plans to finance the purchase through a loan, spreading the $466,559.38 cost over five years to minimize the immediate budget impact. Erickson said the clerk’s office had been budgeting a small amount of money over the years to upgrade voting equipment.
“A couple of years ago, the board directed me to not put that money aside anymore and that we were going to go the loan route or a different financing route to go with it,” Erickson said.
The board also authorized the county treasurer to seek bids for the loan, the terms of which will be approved in the future. They’re seeking financing with no refinance fees or prepayment penalties.
Tri States Public Radio produced this story. TSPR relies on financial support from our readers and listeners in order to provide coverage of the issues that matter to west central Illinois, southeast Iowa, and northeast Missouri. As someone who values the content created by TSPR's news department, please consider making a financial contribution.
