Voting Machine Payoff Approved 

County Will Save Interests Following County Administrator’s Recommendation

LUNENBURG – Lunenburg County officials found out in May that they would be facing another financial burden from the state as Ollie Wright, who serves as the Secretary for the Lunenburg County Electoral Board, notified them of the decertification of the voting machines in Lunenburg.

Wright said that the State Board of Elections decertified the voting machines because of what they called “security issues.” There is a state law that counties must have voting machines in each area and precinct that are state certified.

The lowest bid found by the electoral board after getting this news was through Electronic Systems and Software and that it would cost the county $120,010 to buy the new machines.

The board members had looked at numerous options but the finance committee for the board indicated that they would recommend the use of $22,077 from the voting machine fund that Lunenburg has already and an additional $14,371 saved in the budget through insurance changes be used as a partial payment on the machines. The remaining $78,562 would be financed at a low interest rate.

County Administrator Tracy Gee recently approached the board with the recommendation to go ahead and pay the remaining balance on the new machines instead of financing it in order to save the interest amount. Gee would go on to say that the amount will have to be paid anyway and so the savings on interest would simply be less money that the county pays for the new equipment and something that would not have to be budgeted in the future.

Supervisors Dr. Frank Bacon and Bob Zava agreed that the nearly $2,400 in savings was worth taking this route and not costing the county any extra money.

Lunenburg had to purchase 14 optical scan machines to cover the 12 voting precincts and have 2 spares. Additional handicap accessible machines are also required in order to comply with the required federal mandates.

Supervisor Wayne Hoover had mentioned previously that unforeseen mandates from state and federal governments such as this make it a monumental task each year for localities to set and keep budgets intact.