New voting machines are coming to Connecticut polling locations.
Election officials said Thursday that 2,700 new voting tabulators will be deployed to cities and towns across Connecticut. A small pilot program using the new machines will roll out for the November presidential election, but the majority will go into service in 2025.
The new machines will still use paper ballots, but will allow for better security and faster tabulation of votes, Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas said.
Standing next to one of the new machines at South Windsor Town Hall, Thomas said it’s been about two decades since the last statewide update of election equipment.
“The iPhone wasn’t invented the last time we updated our equipment,” Thomas said, referring to the launch of the iPhone in 2007. (The last time Connecticut widely updated its tabulators was in 2006.)
Since then, election workers have faced routine problems at the polls: bad weather or power outages, Thomas said.
“And that’s their job. But what isn’t in their job description is fixing a voting machine because the roller in the tabulator melted in 100-degree weather,” she continued. “Or having to go on eBay to bid for spare parts because the manufacturer of our current equipment is no longer in business.”
The new machines cost about $20 million and will help polling places deliver accurate and timely results, Thomas said. The funding comes from a $25 million bond approved by the State Bond Commission in October 2023, according to Thomas’ office.
“It seems like people of different political parties don’t have much in common. But ever since I took office, all election workers — regardless of party, size of their town, how long they’ve been in the job — they’ve all been unanimous in one thing: That we desperately need this new equipment,” Thomas said.
A handful of the new machines will be deployed to nine towns for this fall’s election, including: Glastonbury, Hamden, New Britain, New Haven, Rocky Hill, South Windsor, Southington, Vernon and Wethersfield.
“We’ll complete the full deployment by next summer,” Thomas said.
