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State Board of Elections OKs new voting system

The North Carolina State Board of Elections has certified a new voting system.

The board on Thursday gave unanimous approval to the new system manufactured by Elections Systems and Software (ES&S), based in Omaha, Nebraska.

It will be added to several other state-certified voting systems counties can choose from. According to a press release, the new voting machines include an operating system update, increased memory capacity, and new reporting and ballot design modules, among other features.

And like most of the other current voting systems in North Carolina, it uses paper ballots which provide paper trails that can be included in any audits or recounts by elections officials.

During Thursday’s State Board of Elections meeting, board member Stacy "Four" Eggers expressed his support for certification.

"I believe that the equipment that we’re being asked to certify is a good improvement over what we have currently existing," said Eggers. "It complies with our state requirements."

There are some final procedural steps ES&S must complete before the system is offered to all of North Carolina’s 100 counties. 

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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