First State Times

New touch-screen and paper-ballot voting machines used for the first time in school board elections in Delaware last May will be in use in Delaware’s elections in 2020.

State Election Commissioner Anthony Albence told WDEL the new voting machines are secure as they are operated offline, with no risk of interference coming from being online, and use paper ballots so a voter can confirm their vote immediately and so there is a dependable way to recount and canvass results following an election. 

The machines use touch screens and activation cards. The cards are the paper ballots. 

"That paper ballot is in fact the ballot of record––that is the official record––and that'll be the opportunity for the folks to review it. Now, in real time, what we've seen is it might add a second or two, but it's very little in terms of additional time," Albence said. "Everything that we do is hardened, is secure, and is never online, and that's a real key point, I think, to get across."