Nassau County OKs $22M to replace outdated voting machines for 'new and efficient' ones

Voters in Nassau County should expect to see new ballot machines in November after legislators approved the Board of Elections' request to spend $22 million on the next generation of election equipment.   

County elections commissioners told Newsday this week they will keep the system of marking ballots with a pen — still the most common voting system nationally — as opposed to newer touch screens that have been more controversial and at the center of lawsuits in other states. More than $16 million of the money allocated will buy 2,100 new ballot reader machines, 550 of which are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act from the company Clear Ballot. 

The rest of the funds will buy accessory equipment, software, licenses, warranties, service agreements and improvements to warehouse storage and transportation costs, officials said. Nassau legislators in a 17-0 vote, with two absences, approved an emergency resolution to allocate the funds from the county's capital spending plan to buy the machines.

"To the public it will be pretty much the same as they're used to," Republican Board of Elections Commissioner James V. Moriarty said. "These machines will be smaller, more efficient and new. New and better equipment." 

The new machines will be implemented for the first time at more than 350 sites across the county where there are 64 races to be decided. Voters will go to the polls in elections for congressional, state- and countywide offices as well as local towns, cities and villages. Among the most visible is the gubernatorial race that pits Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, against Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat.  

The new machines come more than a year after Suffolk County lawmakers approved $35 million to replace their voting machines, going from pen and paper to touch-screen ballot selection. Elections officials there have been conducting demonstrations at libraries and other public buildings ahead of June primaries, when they will be used broadly for the first time.

Nassau elections officials said they are training election workers and holding some public demonstrations in the months leading up to the full rollout for the general election. They will retire the old ballot readers, in use since 2010, which are about six years beyond their recommended life span, officials said. 

James P. Scheuerman, the Democratic elections commissioner, said they wanted to keep with the pen and paper ballot marking to make it consistent for voters. He said the Board of Elections have 50 machines they've used for some time to train staffers.  

"It's easier for us to build and run the election and its going to be the exact same for the voter, which is what you're looking for when you're bringing on a new voting system," Scheuerman said. 

According to the state Board of Elections website, there are more than a dozen counties that  use Clear Ballot machines, mostly in upstate and western New York.  

By Candice Ferrette

candice.ferrette@newsday.comcandiceferrette

Candice Ferrette covers Nassau County government and politics on Long Island. She has been a reporter at Newsday since 2011.