CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In an unusual weekend session, the North Carolina State Board of Elections will meet Sunday to certify the companies who want to sell new voting machines for use in elections next year.
This follows the decision to return the state from electronic voting to equipment that uses paper ballots.
Mecklenburg County’s Elections Director Michael Dickerson said the county is one of a few that already keeps a paper record, but whichever new system is chosen will go a step farther.
“We have a paper record of what you voted but they want to give each voter a paper ballot before you finalize your vote,” said Dickerson.
South Carolina this week took the wraps off the new equipment voters there will be using.
After finalizing choices on a touchscreen, the machines will print a paper ballot with a barcode. Voters will then check their paper ballot and place it in a scanner.
The scanner takes an image of the ballot, counts it and keeps the original in a locked ballot box.
Chris Whitmire from the South Carolina Elections Commission said, “It will be easy to use, it will be more secure, and give not only elections officials but voters more confidence in the process.”
This week the former Special Council Robert Mueller told a congressional committee that Russia could be counted on to try again to interfere with elections in the U.S.
Mecklenburg County’s Michael Dickerson said he gets regular updates and warning from the Department of Homeland Security if there are potential threats to the election system but adds, “We’ve never found anything here.”
Once the State Board certifies which machines can be used, Mecklenburg and other counties will purchase the new equipment that has to be in place by the start of the new year.