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Sachem board leans to paper ballots for upcoming budget vote, cites $25,000+ machine costs
Summary
Facing county machine unavailability and steep private programming/maintenance fees, the board unanimously leaned to use paper ballots for the upcoming consolidated budget vote and asked administration to draft a resolution for the next meeting.
Sachem Central School District leaders unanimously indicated they will use paper ballots for this year’s consolidated budget vote after hearing that the county would not lend new voting machines and that servicing older machines would carry high costs.
Clerk Allison explained that the county has withdrawn support for the older machines and the vendor offering programming and maintenance quoted substantial fees. "The new company is charging us $4,500 per machine," Allison said, and the district would face programming and maintenance expenses that add up quickly; administration gave an overall bottom-line estimate of roughly $25,000 for machine programming alone. Administration added that, by contrast, running a paper-ballot process at one consolidated location would be significantly cheaper; "The paper ballots are by far cheaper by, you know, at least $30,000, 35," the clerk said.
Why it matters: The county’s transition to new touchscreen equipment left districts to either pay substantial private fees to program and maintain older machines or use paper ballots. The board noted trade-offs: machines can shorten in-person lines but risk mechanical failures without reliable maintenance, while paper ballots increase manual counting work but reduce direct equipment costs and can be livestreamed for transparency.
Board direction and vote: After extended discussion on costs, reliability, staffing and turnout scenarios, the board took a unanimous leaning in favor of paper ballots and directed administration to draft a resolution for formal action at the next meeting. Chair summarized the decision: the board agreed paper ballots are the fiscally prudent option this year given the county’s position and the district’s consolidated single polling location.
Administration noted the district has run large paper-ballot votes successfully in the recent past and will livestream the count and provide procedures to preserve ballot security and transparency.
