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LOCK HAVEN -- In advance of the 2020 presidental election, Clinton County has been mandated by the state of Pennsylvania to replace all of its electronic voting machines, Commissioner Robert "Pete" Smeltz said at Thursday's commissioners' meeting.
"Currently there are 83 voting machines in Clinton County. Replacing them all, we are looking at a number around $400,000. That is a huge number for our county budget," Smeltz continued.
In February, Governor Tom Wolf ordered voting machines to be replaced with models that leave a paper trail before the 2020 elections.
Counties across Pennsylvania are scrambling to purchase these expensive next-gen model voting machines. The sanctity of the election process may be at stake, making it prudent that these machines are produced and installed in a timely manner.
"I don't like unfunded mandates," Smeltz scowled.
"There are grants out there for this, but they are very small. The government has funded money, but it is not nearly enough… they are trying to see it pushed to the local level. They've made only $36,000 in funding available to us in Clinton County." he said.
The fear, according to state officials, is the possibility of being hacked. With the new systems, a hacker would have to have access to nearly 100 machines just to sway a countywide race.
The concern is there, however, as state officials want to kill any doubt in light of the assessment by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that Russian hackers tried to access Pennsylvania's voter database ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
All new and proper voting machines must create a paper backup that will get scanned into a computer, according to the mandate.
Voters won't get a receipt of how they voted, but this will allow election officials a paper copy to later audit digital votes.
"We try to keep up with technology, but technology is already changing. The machines we have, they are only 10 years old, only used 20 times. There's nothing wrong with them, but we are mandated to replace them," Smeltz said.
"An upgrade to our existing machines cannot be done, it is not possible," said vice chairman Jeffrey Snyder. Smeltz continued, "The biggest problem is not the hardware, but the software, it may not be able to handle that kind of activity. The perception is that there is a hacking capability. These issues come up, but the evidence of hacking is just not there. There's 'potential', unless we have the new system. Is it a real crisis or a perceived crisis? I don't know," Smeltz said.
"The new machines will have no internet capabilities, they will be incapable of being hacked," Snyder added.
If they don't comply with the mandate, it could de-certify the votes in Clinton County. The tragedy of that would be that the citizens of the county wouldn't get a vote that counts.
"Price gouging is possible," Snyder fears.
"Only a few companies are expected to be certified to even sell these machines. The state is not known for being prompt when it comes to certification and that sort of thing. If there are only a few vendors, then it becomes a case of supply and demand on the cost of these machines. At this point, there is only one vendor approved, and this all needs to be done within the next 15 months. I see a disaster coming. If there is only one vendor, then we are at their mercy," Snyder said.
The commissioners admit a leased purchase may be possible, but the interest rates would only compound the problem and further drive up the overall cost of the machines.
"We may need to look at collapsing the precincts down, that way we will not need so many of them," commissioner Paul Conklin added.
The new voting machines must be in place by December of 2019.