***UPDATE: This story has been modified to reflect the fact the new equipment won’t be installed until this coming spring, well AFTER this November’s election***
(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson County Board of Supervisors Tuesday voted 5-0 to upgrade elections equipment. Jordan Moyer who oversees elections at the County Auditor’s Office, says new tabulators will be installed at the county’s various polling locations. She says the new equipment will also include enhancements to help meet ADA requirements…
“So it also helps for people that have shaky hands. You know, there’s a lot of elderly people so that will be a nice upgrade, and it will also be a faster system to accept our ballots.”
She adds there’s some advantage to purchasing the new equipment now…
“One of the things right now, you know we kind of talked, is should we do that now, but with our current equipment they are giving us a $17,000 buy back on our current equipment and we fear that if we don’t do it sooner rather than later, that that won’t be an option any more because our equipment’s too old for them to want to take it.”
The upgrade comes at a cost of nearly $93,000.
Moyer adds the equipment won’t be installed until next spring, AFTER this November’s election.
