McAuiliffe puts $28 mililon in budget for all-new voting machines across Virginia

Governor Terry McAuliffe announced that he is including $28 million in his budget to provide new voting machines to precincts across Virginia so all polling places will have uniform, state-of-the-art equipment for the 2015 November elections.

On Election Day 2014, 49 Virginia localities reported voting equipment issues, and currently Virginia precincts are using a wide variety of machines that are often outdated and lack paper trails.

Governor McAuliffe will also include in his budget $30,000 per fiscal year to update the Department of Elections’ website to ensure reliable reporting for future elections.

McAuliffe was quoted as saying“... we cannot expect Virginians to come to the polls on Election Day if we cannot ensure that their votes will be counted correctly and in a timely manner. The problems Virginia encountered on Election Day this year were unacceptable, which is why I have taken unprecedented steps to replace all legacy voting equipment in the Commonwealth with state-of-the art machines that have paper trails and will update our Department of Elections website.”

Edgardo Cortes, Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections, said the purchase of aall new voting machines will “increase transparency and accountability in our election processes.” He also noted it will be more efficient for the Department of Elections to train “all election officials, volunteers, and monitors since all localities will have the same voting technology.”

The Governor is proposing a one-time investment of $28 million in Virginia Public Building Authority bonds to replace all legacy voting machines in Virginia with digital-scan voting machines that have paper trails. Included in that $28 million is $1.7 million to update Virginia’s electronic pollbooks.

Currently, localities are responsible for purchasing their own voting machines, however, the state will fully cover the cost of purchasing these new voting machines for 2,166 precincts across Virginia. The investment will also reimburse 401 precincts that have already purchased the approved type of machine.