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Town clerk: election team undecided between VotingWorks and ImageCast; council urged not to rush purchase
Summary
Town Clerk Tali Keller told the Bedford Town Council on June 25 that the town’s elections team remains undecided between two replacement voting systems — the open-source VotingWorks and the Dominion ImageCast sold through LHS — and recommended more hands-on testing before the council makes a purchase decision that could use a state rebate.
Town Clerk Tali Keller said at the Bedford Town Council meeting June 25 that the town’s elections team, moderators and assistant moderators have reviewed demonstrations of two voting systems — VotingWorks and the Dominion ImageCast offered by LHS — but cannot yet recommend one over the other. Keller said the teams were “kind of deadlocked” and want to run side‑by‑side mock elections to compare scan speed, reconciliation and end‑of‑night processes.
Keller said both products are similar and both vendors are willing to run trials in Bedford. She added, “VotingWorks has an end of night reconciliation part that is very intriguing. LHS…their customer service and response time is top notch.” Keller said LHS’s ImageCast reconciliation module is still being tested and has not been broadly released, and that VotingWorks had suggested availability in August for some hardware components.
The elections team raised cost and timing as factors. Keller said there is a state rebate currently available through June 30, 2026 that would provide $3,500 per replaced AccuVote machine; Bedford has seven AccuVote units, and Keller said the trade‑in rebate “essentially cuts our cost in half” because new machines run about $7,000 each.
Councilors pressed about timelines and operations. Councilor Bill Carter asked whether machines could be delivered in time for March town elections; Keller said LHS has product available and VotingWorks had suggested an August timeline but would work with the town if needed. Councilors asked whether digitization of ballots creates security or recount complications; Keller explained each system writes ballot images to removable media (USB or SD cards), that one copy remains in town and one copy is sent to the state, and that digitization can aid adjudication of write‑ins and could speed reconciliation. She also said absentees and certain write‑ins would still require some hand counting under current state practice.
Council discussion focused on due diligence and deadlines. Councilor Carter suggested an August 31 decision deadline if the council wanted to pick VotingWorks; others, including the council chair, said they preferred to rely on the elections professionals to run mock elections and report back. Keller offered to provide an apples‑to‑apples comparison spreadsheet and invited councilors to attend mock runs planned for the fall and, if needed, earlier tests. No formal decision or purchase authorization was taken at the meeting.
The council also discussed fiscal timing: Keller said the town set aside a capital reserve in prior years and that the state rebate makes a March 2026 purchase desirable to secure the funding, but she noted the town is not yet budgeted to buy machines this fiscal year and that the elections team needs time to complete testing.
