Haverhill will be using a new voter tabulation system during the next election, partly because of divided precincts that came with state redistricting.
The City Council recently approved a request by City Clerk Linda L. Koutoulas to update the current system, which she described as old and prone to breaking down.
“So our tabulators are quite old. They’re a model that is no longer manufactured anymore. The parts are made from old machines. More and more machines go down every election,” she explained.
Although not a problem in Haverhill, the old Accuvote Tabulators have been audited by an independent agency who reported malicious software can steal votes from those machines with little risk of detection.
Koutoulas said because of the city’s newly drawn voting districts, there will be more than one ballot per precinct which the old machines will not be able to process.
She told the Council she requested money be set aside in the capital project list for the past several years and the city Purchasing Director Steven Bucuzzo has assured her there is enough there to purchase new ImageCast 2 Tabulators. The cost of the new machines comes to just under $163,000.
The new tabulators have been certified by the secretary of state’s office and are reportedly completely secure.
The Council voted unanimously to approve the purchase.