Committee hears bill to ban electronic voting equipment; county clerks warn of major cost and logistical challenges

Senate File 184, a proposal to prohibit electronic voting equipment and require paper ballots counted by hand, received extensive testimony in the Corporations, Elections & Political Subdivisions Committee. Sponsors argued the measure would increase election integrity; clerks and the secretary of state said the bill would impose major operational and fiscal burdens and could create privacy and compliance problems.

Sponsor Senator Darren Smith framed the bill as an election‑integrity measure intended to restore public confidence. He told the committee that “hand counting … you might have some human errors and you might be off by 1 or 2 votes but programming errors can be hundreds if not thousands,” and said the bill’s provisions address testing, auditing and observer access.

Proponents’ testimony: Several citizens and local groups urged the committee to move away from electronic systems. Jill Kaufman of Platte County and other witnesses described county-level examples they said exposed vulnerabilities: outdated software and antivirus on county machines, alleged failures in logic‑and‑accuracy testing, proprietary…