General Discussion

WhiteTara

(29,693 posts) Fri Sep 8, 2017, 09:57 PM Sep 2017

Benton County (AR) officials back new voting machines

http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2017/sep/08/benton-county-officials-back-new-voting/

Benton County’s justices of the peace will have their first Budget Committee for the 2018 budget at 6 p.m. Oct. 3 in the Quorum Courtroom in the County Administration Building, 215 E. Central Ave. in Bentonville.

Source: Staff report

BENTONVILLE -- Benton County's justices of the peace agreed Thursday to buy electronic voting equipment instead of going to paper ballots.

The Finance Committee agreed to put a proposal to spend $2.6 million for the new equipment on the agenda for the panel's October meeting. The committee discussed options of buying some of the equipment for 2018 and then more to use in 2020, the next presidential election year, or buying all of the needed equipment up front. The justices of the peace also considered paying cash for the equipment instead of paying it out over a period of years.

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"We've got to do something if it costs half a million dollars for paper ballots every time we do an election," McKenzie said. "If we buy new equipment we'll be spending the same amount of money."

J.D. Hayes, justice of the peace for District 3, said the county needs to consider maintenance costs on the new equipment as part of the overall cost. Dennison said the state has agreed to pay for maintenance contracts on any new equipment the county buys now but has made no pledge that money will be available in the future. She said the maintenance agreements cost $125 annually for each of the machines. Dennison said the county needs 475 of the new voting machines.

"Over 10 years, that's $600,000 in savings," Hayes said.

The other part of the equation is that there is a VERY active Democratic Party in Benton county and this will help the vote count alot. This is the home of Wally World. That is there county and they rule with a velvet fist.