DERRY — To ensure accurate vote counts, the town is getting new ballot counting machines that it will test in March’s municipal election and have ready for the 2024 state primary and presidential elections.
At a recent Town Council meeting, councilors voted to spend $50,400 to buy eight new electronic ballot counting machines.
The new ImageCast machines, from Dominion Voting Systems, will replace the current AccuVote machines Derry has used for decades.
In September, the state’s Ballot Law Commission certified machines from Dominion and VotingWorks, a not-for-profit company whose machines use open-source software. New machines may be used effective March 1, 2024.
Derry Town Clerk Tina Guilford told councilors she attended multiple testing sessions of those machines.
She said her preference for Dominion’s machine came down to two factors — cost and ease with which they could be serviced.
Guilford said the new ImageCast machines will continue to be serviced by Salem-based LHS Associates, an experienced company that serviced the older AccuVote machines.
The AccuVote machines no longer will be serviced after 2024.
“They are completely sunsetted at that point,” Guilford said.
Replacement parts are becoming hard to come by for the AccuVote machines, which the town has used for more than 20 years. At times, non-working machines have had to be taken out of use.
During the pandemic, a machine failed because of the amount of hand sanitizer on a paper ballot being inserted into the machine.
But, Guilford said, “They served us well.”
LHS’s operation is close to Derry, which would speed repairs if necessary during elections.
Derry will put the new machines to the test in the March 2024 town and school district elections, which traditionally have lower turnouts.
The new machines then will be ready for the larger crowds expected for the September state primary and the November general election.
“As we gear up to the 2024 presidential election in November, we will need all of Derry’s eight machines to be running in perfect order,” Guilford told councilors.
