Federal grant to help enhance county voting machines
A $36,351.40 grant from the federal government will aid Greene County in upgrading its voting machines and equipment.
Although county administrators are confident the current machinery will provide fair and accurate vote counts for the upcoming midterm elections, the grant money will help the county purchase new voting machines that comply with Governor Tom Wolf’s proposal requiring machines to provide a paper trail that validates the electronic tabulations by the 2020 election.
The grant money given to the county is part of a $14 million federal grant allocated to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in compliance with the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002.
The 2018 HAVA grant allocation to Greene County is estimated to cover less than five percent of the cost of new voting machines that will be capable of verifying results on paper, which is something the current machines can’t do. Even so, county officials express a lot of confidence in the current machines and equipment.
“The Pennsylvania Department of State allocates funding to each of the state’s counties based on a funding formula,” said Jeff Marshall, Greene County chief clerk. “We received a letter of notification from the state [about the funding] on October 10 and have to respond back by November 30.”
At the moment, the county is looking at voting machine manufacturers and options to determine which ones might best suit the county’s needs. Currently, the county has 110 voting machines of the same make and model that are used at 44 polling precincts during the elections. Each machine costs around $5,500.
“Our goal is to have each citizen in the county vote on the same type of machine,” he said. “We feel very confident that the machines we now have in use are accurate and are up to the job for the November election.”
Tina Kiger, Greene County director of elections, said the current machines are 12 years old and date back to 2006.
“So far, they’re functioning very well,” she said. “We have had some calibration issues on the touch screens, which can happen in transit to the polling places. But these have been few and far between. All the machines are tested before the election, but if an election board finds something that’s not working properly, they phone us and we send out our IT staff immediately to fix it.”
The county received its first HAVA grant of $200,000 in 2006, which was used to help buy new machines, train the election officials and purchase accessibility equipment such as ramps and Mobi mats for transport over gravel roads and paths.
“We’re very certain the voting results in the upcoming election in Greene County will be secure and accurate,” Kiger said.
For information on voting locations and general questions regarding the election, call the Greene County Office of Elections and Voter Registration at 724-852-5230.