COLUMBUS — Ohio’s elections chief wants counties to modernize their voting machines before the 2020 presidential election, and he’s urging the governor and state lawmakers to foot much of the bill.
Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted tells The Associated Press he sent a letter to state legislative leaders Thursday seeking $118 million in state funds for the project. He says that would cover 100 percent of the “lowest estimated cost” for buying the least expensive optical scan equipment.
“The last time Ohio replaced its voting machines the iPhone hadn’t been released, people still rented movies from Blockbuster, and social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat didn’t exist. It’s time to make updating our voting equipment a priority,” he said.
Counties that wanted to buy more expensive equipment would need to cover the difference with local funds.
Kathleen Clyde, the Democratic state Representative from Kent who is seeking to replace Husted, supported the call but said the state should switch to a paper-ballot system to address cybersecurity concerns.
“Aging equipment that stores ballots electronically on memory cards must be replaced with systems that use fully auditable, vote-marked paper ballots,” she said.
If approved, this would be Ohio’s first state-funded voting machine upgrade. A decade ago, voting machines were replaced with federal funds made available after glitches led to a recount in the 2000 presidential election.