MANHATTAN — The Riley County Commission has approved a contract to purchase new election equipment.
County Clerk Rich Vargo presented the contract to purchase a new ballot scanner and vote tabulator from Election Systems and Software during Thursday’s commission meeting.
There have been some challenges finding the right equipment in the past when the county clerk’s office has searched for voting machines. Part of that Vargo says is because the machines must be certified at the federal and state level.
Vargo says the current equipment has been needing to be replaced for some time now, but wasn’t satisfied with what was being offered.
The price tag for the new equipment is $120,000 for the scanner and $1.02 million for the tabulator. Funds were already approved last year in the county’s CIP fund.
