Sedgwick County to hold public preview of new voting machine choices

The Sedgwick County election office will host an open house next week to preview its options for new voting machines.

“We will be having vendors from a couple of options for new voting equipment in a public demonstration,” election commissioner Tabitha Lehman said at a county staff meeting Monday.

“That is open to the public, and we are asking for everybody’s feedback,” Lehman said.

The open house runs from 1 to 5 p.m. on Feb. 1 at the Historic County Courthouse, 510 N. Main, Suite 102.

Sedgwick County plans to replace its 617 iVotronic touch-screen voting machines with more modern equipment. Some voters have complained of issues with the touch-screens not registering their votes accurately.

“These new machines don’t have a lot of those finicky features,” County Commission Chairman Jim Howell said. “These machines appear to me to be a lot more reliable.”

The county asked vendors for their proposals in September and received six responses on Oct. 27.

The open house will feature the two finalists, Elections Systems & Software and Henry M. Adkins and Son. Residents will be able to talk to the vendors as well.

The county hopes to have new machines in 2017, after this year’s presidential and legislative elections.

“We’re not going to try to implement them in ’16, because there’s too much new stuff to get in place,” Howell said.

This story was originally published January 25, 2016 at 6:33 PM with the headline "Sedgwick County to hold public preview of new voting machine choices."