Pennsylvania’s Department of State has mandated all 67 counties must have new voting machines in place – with paper trails - in time for the next presidential election. But it only has $14.1 million in grants available for voting systems expected to cost $147 million. The counties will have to pick up the slack. Also, only one system with a paper trail has been certified, and county officials like another system.

That system is the ExpressVote XL – a full-face Universal Voting System that includes a 32-inch HD screen and an independent voter-verifiable paper record that is digitally scanned for tabulation. At county council’s Aug. 2 meeting, member John Cusick and Administrator Charles Dertinger had high praise for this new machine. It is a stand-alone machine, making it impervious to remote hacking.

A voter is handed a ballot, which he places in the machine. He then makes his selection on the 32-inch screen. He can increase text size or change the contrast for optimal viewing. Once he has made his choices, the paper ballot will appear alongside the screen. If the ballot matches his choices, he can cast his ballot. It will be recorded electronically and his paper ballot will be retained by the machine. If the voter’s paper ballot does not reflect his choices, he can cancel the ballot. The paper ballot will be ejected and the voter can try again. He can do this up to three times.

In addition to the new voting machine, the county is also considering a separate machine with which to scan absentee ballots at a rate of 90 ballots per minute.

Executive Lamont McClure told council he’d like to see the new machines in place next year. That way voters can have some practice before the 2020 Presidential election.

Pennsylvania is one of 21 states that Russian hackers attempted unsuccessfully to penetrate during the 2016 election.