No more touch-screen ballots in St. Louis County after $6.9 million voting equipment upgrade

ST. ANN — Touch screens are out and paper ballots are in after St. Louis County upgraded its voting equipment ahead of the 2020 elections.

The county election board signed a $6.9 million contract with Hart InterCivic in September to replace its legacy voting equipment. The new system prints paper ballots on demand at polling places, said Eric Fey, the board’s Democratic elections director. The price tag was $3 million lower than competing touch-screen-based systems, he said.

Polling places also will be equipped with assistive devices for use by voters with disabilities.

The new system got its first workout in the special election on Nov. 5.

“The equipment worked almost flawlessly at the 30 polling locations we utilized,” said Rick Stream, the board’s Republican elections director. He said there were minor printer toner issues, but election staff fixed those immediately.

With its old system — and the county’s many municipalities, school districts and taxing districts — St. Louis County had to preprint hundreds of unique ballot styles, estimate how many would be needed at each polling place, then deliver them to the correct polling places. Sometimes this process went wrong, as in April 2016, when delivery mistakes prevented residents in more than 60 precincts from voting. Fey said that printing ballots as voters walk in will eliminate this problem.



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