Brevard County Commissioners unanimously approved the purchase of 200 new voting machines to replace outdated, 12-year-old equipment. The $1.3 million cost will be split between county funds and election budget supervisors, with $142,000 in trade credit for the old ones. Machines.Supervisor Tim Bobanic cited the need for consistent voting experience within the precinct as the reason for the upgrade.
Brevard County Commissioners will approve the purchase of a new voting machine on Tuesday, allowing security upgrades to the county’s voting site. In a unanimous vote, the board allocated $705,454.16 for the purchase of new voter equipment. That money accounts for just half of the total cost of 200 new machines from election services and software, a company that provides voting machines to counties across the country. Election budget supervisors will cover the remaining amount of approximately $650,000 for the purchase of new voter equipment.
Election supervisor Tim Bobanick said Tuesday that new software approved by the state of Florida is not operating recently on the machinery currently being used to vote in Brevard. “If you still have the 12-year-old technology you use, that’s the equivalent of what we have right now,” Bobanic said.
He added that he negotiated a $142,000 trade-in value for the old equipment.
“It’s time to replace them from a security standpoint,” Bobanick added. He also said that failing to update machines could create situations in which some precincts have better machines than others, creating an inconsistent voting experience across the county. I did.
Bobanick said he hopes that by purchasing a new machine, he will be able to use it for special elections in June.
Tyler Vasquez is Florida’s North Brevard Watch Dog Reporter today. Please contact Vazquez at 321-480-0854 or tvazquez@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @tyler_vazquez.
