County board approves purchase of five new assistive voting devices to replace aging units

The Koochiching County Board of Commissioners voted March 10 to buy five new assistive voting devices to replace aging units used at every polling place and at the county office.

Joan, the county’s auditor-treasurer, told the board the current units are about 20 years old, weigh more than 50 pounds, are failing and soon may not be supported by the vendor. She said the proposed machines (used by roughly 67 other Minnesota counties) can mark ballots for voters with vision impairments and can generate a ballot from blank stock, which reduces the risk of running out of ballots on Election Day. “They only mark the ballot for people with vision impairment… It has a braille keypad,” Joan said during the presentation.

Joan said the county has about $36,000 in reserved voter funds — an annual allocation the state prorates to counties — and that amount covers most of the purchase. She said the purchase would leave a shortfall of about $1,700 that she planned to cover from a short-term general-fund loan or internal savings in the auditor-treasurer budget. Joan also estimated staffing and programming savings of approximately $2,400 per election because the new units use encrypted layout files uploaded by the vendor rather than shipping hard programming cards.

The board raised no questions and approved the purchase and disposal of the old units by board motion. The vote was recorded in favor, carried by the members present.

The devices do not tabulate votes; Joan emphasized they only mark ballots and are subject to the county’s public accuracy testing process before use in any election.

The county will proceed with procurement and arrange disposal of the old machines through the vendor at no extra cost.