House Members Defeat Election Equipment Bills

A bill to replace failing voting equipment failed in the House Tuesday. There were two separate bills for new election equipment. HB 1122 would have put electronic poll books into all counties. HB 1123 would replace the current inventory of ballot scanners and AutoMarks with new updated voting equipment. The total cost of both bills was $12 million. House members remarked that while this equipment may be needed in the near future, the money is not available now. Numerous counties have identified equipment failures with the current system. The equipment is wearing out and counties have been able to swap problematic equipment with spare machines or cannibalize existing equipment for working parts. Auditors feel a crisis with voting equipment is impending. 

You can access testimony delivered on this issue by following this link: 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4bYba4CUTL1VVJwbmhGWjBWb0E

We will work to explore other possible ways the voting equipment can be amended into other bills as we work through this session.