Valley County Voters Will See New Voting Equipment in 2020

Secretary of State Corey Stapleton has awarded HAVA Election Security Grants to counties throughout the state, including Valley County, to assist them in purchasing the new ExpressVote voting system. The system will utilize touch-screen technology to produce a paper record for tabulation. It will handle the entire marking process, which will eliminate marginal marks and the need for interpretation of the voter’s mark. The upgrade will make it easier for voters with disabilities to cast their vote and will also be easier to manage by election judges.

Valley County received $3,529.21 through the grant, which was put towards the purchase of two machines, one for the Courthouse and one for the Civic Center. Utilizing funds through the Local Operating Tax, Valley County Commissioners approved to cover the remaining cost of the two machines as well as purchase a third machine to be utilized as a backup. Funds were also used to provide upgrades to the DS200 voting machine and a laptop, which is hardcoded to election software, so everything can work together.

“This upgrade would have been done eventually. It was just a nice boost to have the HAVA grant to help assist in the funds,” stated Valley County Clerk and Recorder Taryn Aberg. The ExpressVote voting system will replace the AutoMARK Voter Assist Terminal (VAT), which was designed for use by people who were unable to personally mark a ballot due to physical impairments or language barriers. “The AutoMARK was becoming obsolete. It was big, clunky and really hard to use. The ExpressVote system is smaller and much easier to use,” said Aberg.

Even with these upgrades in the system and software, Aberg stresses each vote is secure. “The DS200 has a memory stick that records the votes. This memory stick gets uploaded into the laptop, which is only hooked up to the power supply and a printer. All reports and votes are then uploaded into another memory stick, that gets uploaded to the State. No votes get uploaded through the Internet or Wifi from the machine itself.”

Aberg has ordered the new machines and the hope is to have everything in place by the 2020 election. “Voters won’t see much of a difference in terms of how they place their vote. Administrators and election workers will see the change,” said Aberg. “The upgrade was much needed and I’m very excited to see how it will work.”