The Volusia County Council voted Thursday to approve the $2.2 million purchase of new voting equipment. The new machines will replace equipment in use since 1994. The biggest impact of the new system will be the speed at which votes can be counted.
Elections supervisor Ann McFall says Volusia County usually has about 65 to 70 thousand absentee ballots mailed in. She says right now they have to feed one ballot at a time in nine units. But things will be much faster starting with the March 2016 presidential primary.
“We are buying units from Elections Systems and Software that will tabulate three hundred a minute instead of the manual three hundred every hour, hour and a half," said McFall.
She said the county has been budgeting for this new equipment for three years. County workers will start working with the new vendor next week to prepare for the spring election season.