After reported problems with Richland County voting machine touchscreens and ballot counting, there's been renewed focus on replacing voting machines across the state.
In recent weeks, the South Carolina State Election Commission, Richland County election director, USC computer science professor and election analyst Duncan Buell, and U.S. Congressman Jim Clyburn have all called for a change in voting equipment before 2020.
The machines are 14-years-old and even though the State Election Commission says there have not been widespread issues, they recommend replacing them before 2020.
South Carolina mandates the same machines and system be used in every county across the state.
The State Election Commission estimates it would cost upwards of $75 million to replace the current system.
So far, they have $15 million from state and federal funds. Meaning, they need $60 million more in the next budget, according to Election Commission spokesman Chris Whitmire.
Newly elected South Carolina Senator Dick Harpootlian, representing District 20, said finding a replacement for the state's voting equipment is a priority.
“These machines are 14 years old, nobody has a 14-year-old iPad or a 14-year-old computer. So, the technology has vastly improved over the last 14-years,” Harpootlian said in his downtown law office.
Harpootlian critiqued how long vote counting took on election night at his victory party.
On Monday, he said he does not want other candidates to experience the same thing in two years.
“What we went through on Tuesday night, last Tuesday night, was horrible. Not only did the voters not find out till the early morning hours who had won a race, candidates like me figured once they closed the machines out and had the computer chip that they plugged in, we ought to know by 8:30, 9 o’clock and we didn't,” Harpootlian continued.
Harpootlian said he would support buying new machines and would urge others to do so. But, he wants to make sure the money, an additional $60 million, is well spent and necessary.
“I want to get down in the weeds, get very granular, and look and see how this machine stacks up, has it been used elsewhere, have there been problems elsewhere and how expensive is it? We're not a state with a lot of spare money to spend,” Harpootlian said.
He added that he wanted a system with a paper trail, which the State Election Commission said they would require.
Richland County Democratic Representative Todd Rutherford, District 74, said quality election equipment is the base for every other decision.
“What people need to understand is their tax dollars go to a democracy that stands for something. What it stands for depends on what the voters tell us. If the voters are voting and telling us one thing but we don’t get it because our machines are broken, then we're all lost. If people are going to the polls to get rid of somebody, be it Democrat or Republican, and that person stays in place because our machines can't tally their votes? Then we've got to do something, we've got to do it right away,” Rutherford said at the State House on Monday.
Along with Harpootlian, Rutherford said he also was in favor of a system with the ability to do audits on paper.
He also suggested the state look at a variety of alternatives besides new computer machines to see what was most accurate, secure and cost efficient. However, Rutherford said he believes the Election Commission does need the money.
South Carolina’s next budget goes into effect on July 1, 2019.