Current software and hardware used by Macoupin Election Office:

In 2004, Macoupin County purchased the first voting machines after punch ballots. After 15 years, the machines were showing their age and beginning to break down. The new machines will make Election Day run smoother, give voters confidence their ballot is counted, and have every ballot cast be a paper ballot.

What will the new machines be like?
For most voters, they won’t be able to tell the difference. There will be a paper ballot. They will fill in the ovals next to who they wish to vote for. They will then slide it into the machine to be counted. One big difference is if a voter uses a touchscreen to vote, after they have finished voting, a paper ballot will be printed out and have to be slid into the tabulator. Below is a video we made to show how the machines will work.

Why did we need new voting machines?
The machines we had were recommended for use for 8 years. We used them for 15 years. They were breaking down, not working on Election Day, and in some instances, not counting ballots. For example, in this April’s election, 6 ballots were not counted by the machine on Election Day. During the audit period after, the Election Office was able to catch this discrepancy and get the votes counted, but that is still a troubling fact. And with the 2020 Election approaching and turnout expected to be extremely high, now was the time to get new machines that everyone can have confidence in before the 2020 Election.