State Election Commission Seeks $21.1M to Retire Scanner Loan and Flags E‑poll Book Risks
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Summary
Interim Election Commission Director Jenny Wooten asked the legislature for $21,100,000 nonrecurring to pay off a scanner lease and described additional requests: $1.5M recurring for county reimbursements, up to $18M to replace e‑poll books, and smaller nonrecurring items. She also warned about Wi‑Fi related data‑transmission problems that required manual uploads during a municipal election.
The State Election Commission told a legislative subcommittee it needs one‑time and recurring funding to address debt service on recently purchased ballot scanners, shore up county reimbursements and prepare for aging check‑in equipment.
Interim director Jenny Wooten said, "The number 1 priority that we are asking for this year is a $21,100,000 nonrecurring request." The money would be used to pay off a master lease loan the commission took in 2024 to purchase about 3,000 ballot scanners. Wooten stated the full lease purchase was roughly $31,790,000 spread over three years, with about $30,000,000 in principal and nearly $2,000,000 in financed interest; the agency incurred an additional $138,000 when it had to extend a payment earlier.
Committee members asked who authorized the borrowing. Wooten said the former director, Mr. Knapp, entered into the decision and that the commission may not have been aware of a separate loan taken to cover tax liabilities; she offered to provide more detail. Wooten also said the state received about $2,000,000 in credit for traded‑in machines.
Beyond the payoff request, Wooten reviewed several other priorities: a $1,500,000 recurring appropriation to reimburse counties for election‑related expenses (the commission estimates roughly $5,000,000 in reimbursements in a general election year); an equipment‑replacement planning request for electronic poll books (Wooten cited an initial quote of about $18,000,000 to replace check‑in devices); $1,800,000 nonrecurring for an asset management tracking system; $2,000,000 nonrecurring for curbside voting equipment; and $45,000 nonrecurring as the 20% state match for an ongoing federal security grant.
Wooten acknowledged the scanners and e‑poll books ‘‘worked very similarly to the old machines’’ but said the agency has identified issues that complicate real‑time reporting. She described a municipal election incident tied to a Netgear firmware update in which Wi‑Fi devices that transmit e‑poll book data did not operate as expected; county officials had to manually upload nightly to create the near‑real‑time roll‑tracking the system is designed to provide. Wooten emphasized voting scanners are not connected to the Internet and said the data‑transmission problem affected only reporting, not the integrity of ballots.
Committee members pressed whether upgrades could be implemented in time for upcoming elections. Wooten said a full procurement and statewide deployment would not be feasible for 2026 and that hardware replacement would likely be looked at for 2027 or 2028. She also estimated that a statewide poll‑worker pay program would cost roughly $4,000,000 if the legislature chose to fund it.
No formal votes were recorded at the hearing. Wooten agreed to provide additional details on loan authorizations, the audit feature that has not yet been implemented and more granular audit procedures if committee members requested them.