Concord Monitor - NH offers money to help replace old ballot-counting machines

The AccuVote machine is used to count votes on election night in New Hampshire. Courtesy

By DAVID BROOKS

Monitor staff

New Hampshire will funnel federal funds to towns and cities to help them replace old ballot-counting machines.

The Secretary of State’s office said Monday that municipalities can get $3,500 per device to replace existing AccuVote machines while towns that hand-count ballots can get the money to buy one machine. The money can also be used instead to purchase e-poll books, digital systems to keep track of eligible voters.

The one-time offer is funded through the federal Help America Vote Act. Each machine costs around $6,000.

For three decades New Hampshire has used machines from AccuVote to scan and tally people’s ballots, but they use the long-unsupported operating system Windows XP and can be repaired only by cannibalizing other machines. The Ballot Law Commission has approved two models to replace them: one from Dominion Voting Systems, which makes the follow-up to the AccuVote device, and one from VotingWorks, a not-for-profit company that uses open-source software that can be viewed by the public.

So far only the VotingWorks device has met the state conditions to be used in elections. The Secretary of State’s office says Dominion’s system should be approved later this year.

Analysis of state elections has shown that ballot-counting machines are usually more accurate than counting ballots by hand on election night.