Sep. 16 — Representatives of the proposed new Luzerne County election voting system Hart InterCivic held a demonstration for county officials in the election bureau Tuesday night.
County council is expected to vote on whether to lease the system at its next meeting Sept. 23.
County council members Patty Krushnowski and LeeAnn McDermott attended along with three county Election Board members — Chairwoman Christine Boyle, Vice Chairwoman Alyssa Fusaro and Albert Schlosser.
The election board had voted in August to accept the election bureau’s recommended change to the Hart InterCivic system.
New equipment was pursued because the five-year maintenance and support contract with current voting equipment supplier Dominion Voting Systems expires at the end of this year, officials said.
The bureau is recommending that voters fill out selections on paper ballots and then feed them into the Hart InterCivic scanners to be tallied, which will reduce the equipment needed. Using the Dominion system, voters make selections on computerized touchscreen ballot marking devices, print out the ballot for review, and then feed it into a tabulator.
Leasing of the Hart InterCivic system would cost $574,000 annually for five years, which includes equipment, software, maintenance and support services.
However, the bureau estimates it will fully offset that cost with approximately $600,000 in annual savings using the new system, in part through reduced expenses for equipment transport to polling places and staffing. Ballot design and equipment testing would also be completed in-house instead of relying on outside contracting, the bureau said.
County Election Director Emily Cook said the county will only need one electronic ballot marking device at each of the 186 voting precincts to accommodate those with disabilities, compared to the current inventory of 720 ballot marking devices.
During Tuesday’s demonstration, Hart InterCivic representatives Kelley Hood and Shawn Phillips briefed attendees on the Austin, Texas-based company, saying it is one of the top three voting system vendors in the country with equipment used by 31 million registered voters.
Three other Pennsylvania counties use the system, they said: Delaware, Lancaster and Fulton.
Phillips intentionally selected more than the allowable candidates on a sample paper ballot to demonstrate how the machine rejected it with a message informing the voter of “overvoting.” In this situation, voters would have the option to formally void their ballot, which means it would not be cast, and then fill out a new one.
The equipment can accommodate ballots of different sizes based on the county’s preference, Phillips said.
Fusaro said the use of paper ballots will end concerns about the need for voters to scroll through a device to view all names in larger races.
Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.
