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Forsyth County Recommends Current Supplier For New Voting Machines

KERI BROWN/WFDD

The Forsyth County Board of Elections is recommending new voting machines that include a paper ballot option during early voting. 

The five-member elections board unanimously recommended that new voting equipment be provided by Elections Systems & Software, a company that partners with North Carolina-based Printelect.

The Winston-Salem Journal reports that ES&S supplies the touch-screen machines currently being used. Those units are being decertified because new rules require that all voting machines produce a paper ballot.

Officials expressed confidence in the new machines, although some observers believe that bar codes placed on some types of ballots could pose a security threat.

The new voting equipment will cost about $1.2 million. The recommendation now goes to the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners, who will make the final decision.

Guilford County officials have postponed making a decision on choosing a vendor until October 1st.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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