Dunklin County installing new voting machines

KENNETT, Mo. -- Dunklin County voters will notice a big change when they head to the polls next week for the Aug. 5 statewide primary race.

The County Clerk's office is installing $97,000 worth of new voting machines at all polling stations in the county.

Once voters have completed their paper ballots, they will insert them in the top of the machine, which will register the ballots electronically and automatically deposit them in the locked container underneath.

Dunklin County Clerk Carol Hinesly said another new feature will be electronic poll books. Voters are encouraged to present a photo identification or a voter ID card to poll workers when they arrive.

However, voters without those things still can cast their ballots if they are registered in the electronic data system. It will verify name and address, and voters will have to sign the confirmed information.

The new machines mean poll workers no longer will gather ballots from all the voting stations and count them at the Dunklin County Courthouse in Kennett.

At the close of the polls Tuesday, election judges at each station will remove the machines' memory keys and deliver them to the courthouse in Kennett. County clerk staff then will extract the data from the memory keys, providing all the vote totals for the day.

Hinesly said the new machines will be set up at all county voting locations Monday. Kennett will be assigned six of the machines at the American Legion building, where all five wards again will vote.

Malden will receive two machines, and polling stations in Campbell, Glennonville, Holcomb, Independence, Caruth, Arbyrd, Senath, Hornersville and Cardwell, Missouri, will get one each.

As required by federal and state law, machines will be available for handicapped voters.

On election day, polls will open at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. Absentee balloting began June 24 statewide and continues through Monday.

Absentee ballots also may be cast at the county clerk's office in Kennett from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday.

Dunklin County bought the new machines. Payments for them will be spread out over the next three years.