Machines

the 2016 elections.

But Montgomery County Commissioners’ Chairwoman Valerie Arkoosh said the county was already in the process of replacing its previous machines when Gov. Tom Wolf signed a law requiring Pennsylvania voting machines to keep paper records.

“We had been socking money away to pay for new machines before the governor signed that bill,” she said.

The Dominion Voting System cost $3.7 million, $900,000 of which was provided by federal funding, according to Dean Dortone, Montgomery County’s chief financial officer.

“In years two through eight, a total of $1,146,000 will be paid for annual software maintenance costs and another $892,000 for hardware warranty costs. Those costs will be incurred over an eight-year period,” Dortone wrote in an email.

Arkoosh said the system chosen was the least expensive and the one overwhelmingly preferred by the 300-or-so people who showed up last year at the Montgomery County Community College’s main campus in Blue Bell where the 11 possible models were on display.

“This is what our constituents wanted,” she said.

Arkoosh said the county decided against issuing paper receipts reflecting the vote cast “because it would be used for intimidation, like if a spouse demands to see how a spouse voted. Also, it could be used as proof to sell votes.”

These machines will not be connected to the Internet, which was also true of the previous machines, Arkoosh said.

She said the paper records will be kept for at least two years and the county is in discussions with the Pennsylvania Department of State to look into holding random accuracy audits of machines to match them against the paper records.

“We’re just trying to figure out how many we need to audit to be statistically significant,” Arkoosh said.

Teresa Harris, communication manager for Montgomery County, said the county has been keeping track of concerns raised by residents as the machines tour the county for similar demonstrations.

“The most frequent complaint we get is people didn’t know we were changing them,” she said. “People are also worried it will take too much time and make the lines longer.”

But the fact that the machines will be used for the first time in an off-year primary election, traditionally the one with the lowest voter turn-out, may help voters ease into the new method, Harris said.