Suffolk County is one step closer to making hand-marked paper ballots a thing of the past. 

The Suffolk County Board of Elections plans to roll out new touch screen voting machines — likely in time for November’s general election, according to the county Board of Elections commissioners. The Board has not yet decided which of two voting machines under consideration to purchase with nearly $35 million approved by the Suffolk County Legislature this month.

In May, Republican Commissioner Betty Manzella told county legislators that the "Board's goal is to find the most efficient certified voting system that provides security, enhanced usability and is cost effective."

The Board of Elections will choose between systems made by Election Systems & Software and Dominion Voting Systems, according to commissioners.

The board is piloting a controversial Election Systems & Software machine during a special election for a council seat in Southampton Town. It’s unclear if the board will also pilot the Dominion Voting Systems machines.

Here’s what to know about the machines under consideration.

Why is the Board of Elections buying new voting machines?

Manzella of the county BOE told county legislators last May during a capital budget meeting that the current machines, now 15 years old, were "beyond their useful life of eight to 12 years." She said current machines are prone to ballot jams and mechanical issues, among other issues and the county needed to buy 2,750 machines.  

Which voting machines are under consideration?

The ExpressVote XL, made by Elections Systems & Software, is known as a hybrid ballot marking device-tabulator. It features a 32-inch, horizontal touch screen. The Board is currently renting machines for a pilot program in the Southampton Town special election that began with early voting March 8. The election is Tuesday, March 18.

The ImageCast X made by Dominion Voting Systems is a different type of touch screen voting machine with a 21-inch vertical screen that can be used as a ballot marking device in conjunction with a separate tabulator.

A purchase quote ES&S provided the board in 2024 estimated the total cost at $34.8 million, the same figure in the county's 2025 capital budget for the purchase of voting machines and equipment, which it specifies as ExpressVote XL.

Dominion provided the board separate budget quotes last year ranging from $8 million for 1,200 tabulators to $14.8 million for 2,400 ImageCast X machines plus 350 tabulators.

How does a voter cast a ballot on the ExpressVote XL machine?

At check-in, the voter receives a blank ballot card encoded with a specific ballot to insert into the voting machine’s card slot. A privacy curtain shields the voter.

Rather than mark the ballot by hand, the voter selects each candidate on the monitor. Once finished, the voter selects a button to "print and review" their choices, similar to receiving a receipt.

A printed ballot summary card displays bar codes, which the tabulator reads to cast the ballot, and the names of the selections below for the voter to review. Once the voter confirms the printed ballot is correct, the final step is to select "cast." The printed ballot is deposited into a secure container.

How does a voter cast a ballot on Dominion Imagecast X machine?

After check-in, the voter inserts a "voter activation card" to display the ballot, similar to how the process begins for the ExpressVote XL. The voter uses the touch screen to select each candidate and "next" and "back" buttons allow the voter to toggle between races.

Once finished, the voter selects "print ballot" to print a ballot. The voter confirms on the printed ballot that the selections are correct.

The printed ballot is inserted into a ballot scanner and the ballot is cast once a confirmation appears on the screen. A poll worker can assist a voter after the ballot is printed if a change is needed prior to the ballot being cast.

The system does not allow for selecting more candidates than allowed, but voters can skip a race or vote for fewer candidates than allowed.

Why do some groups object to the ExpressVote XL machine?

Several groups oppose the machines, including Common Cause New York, Verified Voting, The Black Institute, Project Civica and Free Speech for People.

Chrissa LaPorte, deputy policy and strategy director for Verified Voting, said in an interview that the machines can be challenging for voters to verify their selections. If a machine breaks, it can create longer waiting periods for voters, and there are also concerns about auditing results, LaPorte said.

Mark Lindeman, the nonprofit's policy and strategy director, wrote in a July 2023 letter to the New York State Board of Elections commissioners that the machines were "wholly unsuitable for universal use by all voters at a polling place." 

Common Cause New York, its executive director Susan Lerner, The Black Institute and four individuals from separate counties in New York sued the state Board of Elections in 2023 after the machines were certified. The case was dismissed and is on appeal.

ES&S said voters cast a ballot in 80 seconds on average and the machines produce a "voter-verifiable paper ballot and has proven its accuracy and auditability time and again." It said widely publicized errors in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, in 2019 and 2023 where the bar code and printed names were flipped were "due to human errors in formatting the ballot." Both elections "were tabulated accurately" and additional "quality control steps" were put into place, according to the company.

Does the ImageCast X raise similar concerns?

Most of the pushback aimed at county legislators for funding new machines has centered on the ExpressVote XL machines. Susan Greenhalgh, a senior adviser on election security for the left-leaning group Free Speech for People, however, told Newsday the ImageCast X "shares the same drawbacks as the ExpressVote XL in that it is a touch screen voting machine that is used to mark ballots electronically and the votes are recorded and counted from an unreadable QR code."

She and others have urged the board to stick with machines that use a hand-marked paper ballot. 

When will the Board of Elections make a decision?

John Alberts, the Democratic commissioner for the Board of Elections, said the board will determine whether it will conduct additional pilots or make a final decision on the system to purchase after the special election and should there be a primary in June.  

Has Suffolk County been able to test any of these machines?

Yes. Newsday interviewed a dozen voters, ranging in age from 23 to 90, at a poll site at the Stony Brook University Southampton student center during early voting on March 12 where the ExpressVote XL machines were used. The voters largely praised the machines for their ease of use. Most of the voters interviewed were unaware of the changes before arriving and were using them for the first time.

Poll workers were seated near the six machines to assist and the voters were asked to complete a survey to provide the board feedback.

The special election only presented voters one race, compared with the more a dozen or so plus propositions in a general election. Most voters breezed out of the booth in about 60 seconds.

Julie Reisdorff, of Southampton Village, said the instructions were clear and a poll worker assisted when she was unsure how to proceed at first.

"I think it's a good thing," she said.

Kathy Solomon, of Southampton, said the new machines were "surprising" and it took her a minute to figure out which way to insert the ballot card into the machine. The ballot card has an angled right corner to indicate the direction.

"I didn't see that right away," she said, adding that the poll workers were "fantastic" in assisting her.

By Joe Werkmeister

joe.werkmeister@newsday.com

Joe Werkmeister covers the towns of Southampton, East Hampton and Shelter Island. He is a graduate of St. Bonaventure University and previously worked as the editor of two North Fork community newspapers.

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