Starke County Election Board to Pursue Voting Machine Upgrades

Posted on December 11, 2017
Author Michael Gallenberger, WKVI

The Starke County Election Board has decided to proceed with upgrades to the county’s 46 voting machines. Steve Shamo with vendor MicroVote said the goal is to bring the machines up to the latest federal standards, in time for the 2020 presidential election. “The difference is primarily how the software and the firmware, which is the resident software in each panel, thinks,” he explained. “For instance, the system that you have, the software coding is written like line one through 250,000. That’s how it thinks in logic. The new software requirements require that all functions are remained in very compartmental small blocks of code, and require what’s called a transactional operation.”

He said that will require the replacement of internal components, like processors and motherboards. “The only visible difference that your voters will see is that the screen will be different,” Shamo said. “The screen will have a dark image with white lettering on it, so it’s much more clarity. And there’s a different glare shield on the top, which, ironically, is the cheapest component that does the best work. It’s a one-dollar plastic screen.”

One thing that will not be added to Starke County’s voting system is a printed receipt for voters. Shamo said that while it might make the process seem more secure, it actually has the potential of complicating matters. “If you had some sort of device that was printing, and it missed even a single one . . . that entire audit-ability is void. You’ve missed one,” he said. “And then the second factor of it is that it’s a receipt that is sell-able, and it’s maintainable. So unless it’s you’re guaranteeing 100-percent collection of those receipts, as they’re being handed out or whatever, showing how to vote, if it leaves the polling site, that unto itself can void an election.” However, he said the system does have the ability to print individual vote records, to allow a recount to be done by hand.

Shamo said the upgrades will cost the county just over $1,400 per machine, compared to $3,900 for a brand new one. With the election board’s approval last week, the proposal now goes to the county commissioners and county council for further consideration.

The work would likely take place after the 2018 election cycle. Clerk Vicki Cooley said that might allow the election board to fund the upgrades in the 2019 budget.