$1.5M election equipment makes debut in Dumfries special election

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Yesterday evening, interim Dumfries Town Council member Bill Murphy was elected to a permanent seat on the council following a special election in Dumfries.

Murphy was among the 35 residents that came to vote in the election, where he earned 92.1% of the vote, according to election results.

Kristin Forrester was the former town council member that Murphy took over for.

“She was just elected last year – she was a federal employee, and she got a new job assignment overseas, so she resigned. They appointed an interim person…Bill Murphy…so he’s running to keep his seat,” said Keith Scarborough, secretary of the Prince William County Electoral Board.

But the election was not only the chance to elect a new Town Council member – it was also the debut of new voting equipment in Prince William County.

The county had been using touch screen machines for elections, but the General Assembly decided to move to paper balloting machines in 2005, and the county has been phasing out their older machines.

“We are in the process of replacing all of our touch screen [voting] machines that we’ve used for the last ten years. The General Assembly goes back and forth about electronic or paper – which is more secure, and which one people want. Basically, the General Assembly has said we can’t buy any more touch screen machines – so they’re forcing all of the cities and counties to go back to paper ballots,” Scarborough said.

According to Brenda Cabrera, Chief Deputy for the Prince William County Office of Elections, the county went through a long process with vendors to find the right machines that met the voter’s needs.

“There’s only four vendors in the state of Virginia that are essentially certified…so we met with all four of them…we had mock elections in two areas of the county with the two vendors that we had chosen and did a lot of different surveying of the participants,” Cabrera said.

The county settled on Hart InterCivic, an election equipment company based out of Texas.

Voters using the new paper ballot system will need to take a paper ballot to the voting area, fill out the bubbles on the ballot, and then place the ballot into the new machine.

“The biggest change is that before when you came in…they would hand you a voting card, and you would go over to one of the machines. And now instead, they will hand you a paper ballot,” said Scarborough.

While the phasing out process began back in 2005, the Prince William County Board of Supervisors did not allot funds for new voting equipment until after the 2012 presidential election – which saw long lines and voter frustration.

“After that election, that’s when the board [of supervisors] voted to give us $1.5 million dollars to do the transition,” Scarborough said.

“The equipment cost is only going to be a part of it. That is about $1.1 million, but there’s the cost associated with more paper for ballots, more training for election officers and more things – places to put the ballots, ways to store the ballots,” said Cabrera.

Cabrera stated that starting with the upcoming June 9 primary; all voting precincts will have the new paper ballot machines in use for elections.