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Fayette commissioners to consider approving new voting system

By Mike Tony mtony@heraldstandard.Com 4 min read

Fayette Countians will be getting a new voting system for the 2020 primary and beyond to comply with a state mandate.

But Fayette County’s commissioners have their own vote to cast first.

At its regular monthly voting meeting today, the Fayette County Board of Commissioners will consider approving the Fayette County Election Board’s selection of Dominion Voting as the county’s new voting system and beginning negotiations with the vendor to purchase 90 scanners and 90 Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant units for 77 precincts.

The Pennsylvania Department of State informed counties in April 2018 that they must select voter-verifiable paper record voting systems selected by the end of 2019. About three quarters of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties have already voted to either buy or lease a new voting system, or have approved funding for such a system, according to the Department of State.

“Research, review and open discussion were part of the selection process with the election bureau staff and the voting members of the election board before recommending a vendor for the new voting equipment,” said Commissioner Angela M. Zimmerlink, the only commissioner who was a voting member of the election board for selection of Dominion Voting since the other two commissioners, Vincent A. Vicites and Dave Lohr, may not serve on the board while they are candidates for public office. Both Vicites and Lohr are on the ballot for reelection.

Vicites and Lohr said this week that they both support the election board’s selection of Dominion Voting but are not certain whether they will choose to purchase the new equipment outright or leasing it.

“We’re still looking at all options,” Vicites said.

Lohr said that leasing could be “a little bit better financially,” adding that the price for the voting system itself may be higher with leasing but that buying outright would add licensing and maintenance fees that make leasing a more attractive option.

“I still want to look a little further into leasing options,” Vicites said. ” … (That’s) not off the table.”

Lohr indicated that the county would have to pay for “anything that breaks” after a three-year warranty with Dominion Voting but that Dominion would continue to provide repair under a leasing agreement.

Buying the new voting system outright could cost roughly $800,000, Lohr said, cautioning that the figure wasn’t a “solid number” and is still to be determined.

Lohr said the county will have to “swallow the pill” of paying for the new voting system, which he said will be paid for out of the general fund.

“(O)ther counties set aside funds so any borrowing will be less for them whereas Fayette County did not, so decisions will need to be made on financing, which may lead to more cost in the long run,” Zimmerlink said.

Earlier this month, the Westmoreland County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the purchase of hardware, software, software licenses, maintenance and support and extended hardware from Election Systems & Software, LLC for $7,062,989, pending review by the county solicitor.

Westmoreland County had set aside $8.2 million to buy the machines using money from a $44 million loan taken out earlier this year to pay for a series of capital projects.

Last month, the Washington County Election Board voted to recommend that Election Systems and Software be chosen from among five vendors to provide new voting equipment at a price tag of $2,870,745.

The Greene County Board of Commissioners voted in February to spend $741,888 to purchase new voting equipment from Election Systems and Software, and the county’s new machines made their debut in the May primary.

Gov. Tom Wolf has committed $14.15 million in federal and state funding to counties for new voting systems. Wolf recently announced the Pennsylvania Economic Development Financing Authority is working toward issuing a bond for up to $90 million to reimburse counties for at least 60% of their actual costs for the systems.

Experts have urged states to switch to voting systems that produce a paper record.

Fayette County previously purchased voting machines from Hart InterCivic of Texas in 2006.

“We hope to get as many years (out of the new voting system) as possible,” Vicites said.

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