Philadelphia OKs Use Of New Voting System

PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia has joined at least 11 other counties in Pennsylvania to move ahead with implementing a new voting system.

City commissioners voted Wednesday to select a new voting system under updated standards for security, auditability and accessibility.

"County commissioners and election directors from rural and urban counties, large and small, are demonstrating remarkable leadership and commitment to ensuring that all voters will be voting on systems with voter-verifiable paper ballots and meeting the highest standards of security and accessibility by 2020,” Governor Tom Wolf said.

In April 2018, the Department of State informed counties they must select new voting systems that provide a paper record and meet 21st-century standards of security, auditability and accessibility no later than Dec. 31, and preferably have a system in place by the general election on Nov. 5.

Governor Wolf has proposed a minimum of $15 million in state funding each year for the next five years, for a combined total of at least $75 million to assist counties in acquiring the new systems.

In approving the purchase of Election Systems & Software’s Express Vote XL, the city commissioners said they intend to have the system implemented for the November election.

The county currently has nearly 1,047,000 registered voters and 1,692 precincts.

“Today is a momentous day,” City Commissioner Chair Lisa Deeley said Wednesday. “Today, we voted to give the city’s voters a secure and resilient system with an auditable voter-verifiable paper ballot. We look forward to the next steps, which are educating our poll workers and voters.”

In Montgomery County, election officials in December 2018 approved the purchase of its new voting system, Dominion Voting Systems’ Democracy Suite. The county has 556,000 voters and 433 precincts.

There are now at least 11 counties that have approved purchases or leases of new voting systems throughout the commonwealth. Others that have approved purchases or leases include: Berks, Bradford, Centre, Crawford, Lawrence, Lebanon, Lehigh, Pike, and Susquehanna counties.

Multiple other counties have approved funding for new voting systems but haven’t yet decided which specific system is the best fit for their voters.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, along with the U.S. Senate and House intelligence committees and many security experts have called on all state and local election officials to make certain that by the 2020 presidential election every American votes on a ballot that can be checked and verified by the voter and that can be audited by election officials.

Under the Pennsylvania Election Code, every county must employ voting systems that are certified by both the federal Election Assistance Commission and the secretary of the commonwealth.

There are four voting systems certified under the new security and accessibility standards, with another two systems currently in certification testing.

Image via Shutterstock