Not an option: SWVA localities face voting machine costs

GATE CITY – A combination of state and federal mandates, aging voting machines and a presidential election in two years is hanging over Southwest Virginia localities during the annual local budget season.Scott County Registrar Mike Edwards and Wise County Registrar Allison Robbins handle elections for the two largest local electorates in the LENOWISCO area, and they agree that localities like theirs are facing a budget challenge that state and federal laws give little latitude to handle."It's not the best of situations," Edwards said Thursday, a day after he told the county Board of Supervisors that they will have to look at either upgrading the county's 25 existing voting machines or replacing them something between now and the 2028 presidential election."We don't have deadlines yet to meet those requirements," Edwards said Thursday, "but it puts us in a very bad situation when it does come, and we don't know the exact cost yet."Edwards and Robbins both referred to Code of Virginia Section 24.2-2600 – the first mandate: "The cost of conducting elections under this title shall be paid by the counties and cities, respectively. The cost of town elections shall be paid by the towns."The second, federal mandate is Donald Trump's Executive Order 14248 – "Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections." Aside from assertions that the U.S. is behind on voter identification and verification along with mail-in voting standards, the order also states that no voting machines can be used in federal elections unless federally certified.Federal certification requirement includes machines providing a "voter-verifiable paper record," according to the nonpartisan nonprofit Voting Rights Lab.Several parts of Trump's order have been blocked or are under review in federal courts across the U.S., according to the Brennan Center for Justice, including provisions for decertifying localities' voting machines and for requiring voters to present a passport of proof of citizenship before voting.Part of the certification process for voting machines is Voluntary Voting Systems Guidelines 2.0 – a set of standards for voting machine manufacturers since the latest guidelines were developed in 2021."A lot of localities' systems in Southwest Virginia are grandfathered under VVSG 2.0 because they were purchased between 2016 and 2017," said Robbins, adding that state law has required optical-scan ballot machines for several years.Typical industry standard for the useful life of a voting machine is approximately 10 years, Robbins said. After that, the machine should be replaced or, if possible, upgraded, she said, but parts and software availability depends on whether manufacturers still support their older products.Edwards said the maker of Scott County's machines still can do the necessary software, memory board and touchscreen updates, but an upgrade may not last as long as a new machine.Funding for new machines or upgrades is probably going to be a matter for localities."In my time as registrar, there has never been a state grant for localities to buy voting machines," said Robbins.While Edwards gave the Scott supervisors an estimate of costs – approximately $5,000 to upgrade a single machine or $10,000 for a new machine – he said those are approximations."We've been fortunate with the equipment we have, and we want to keep the supervisors informed so it won't be a shock when we have to upgrade or buy machines," said Edwards, "but we don't know everything that's going to be required. We don't have any true costs yet.""We're on a countdown clock," Robbins said.Online:-Voluntary Voting System Guidelines 2.0: Federal Election Assistance Commission -https://www.eac.gov/sites/default/files/TestingCertification/Voluntary_Voting_System_Guidelines_Version_2_0.pdf-Trump Executive Order 14248: The American Presidency Project, University of California Santa Barbara - https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-14248-preserving-and-protecting-the-integrity-american-elections-Brennan Center for Justice: Status of Trump's Anti-Voting Executive Order - https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/status-trumps-anti-voting-executive-order