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.