When it comes to elections, the pendulum just keeps swinging.
With electronic voting equipment nearing the end of this life expectancy, Barton County Election Officer Donna Zimmerman is eyeing the future and sees a need for a change. This change could include a return to the old-school paper ballots.
With such an evolution on the horizon, Zimmerman hosted a voting equipment demonstration in the Barton County Courthouse Thursday morning. Kansas county clerks and election officials joined her staff for the presentations.
Participants witnessed demonstrations from multiple voting system manufacturers. ElectionSource of Grand Rapids, Mich., presented Dominion Voting Systems and Henry M. Adkins & Son of Clinton, Mo., presented Unisyn Voting Solutions.   
“It appears that the trend is to return to paper ballots with equipment only for used by those with disabilities,” Zimmerman said. “This is the yo-yo in elections.”
“It seems really weird that we’re going back to paper ballots,” said Darin DeWitt, Barton County voter registration clerk. “It’s like two steps backward.”
DeWitt and Zimmerman were among the handful of election officials huddled around the pricey new equipment in the Barton County Commission chambers to hear the sales pitch for from ElectionSource. Computers, scanners, readers, screens and other devices were scattered about the room.
“I have a lot of conspiracy theorists who believe voting machines are rigged,” said Sarah Rains, Hodgeman County Clerk. Voters may be more apt to trust hardcopy ballots.
Despite how the votes are cast, they ultimately get scanned and saved digitally for tabulation.
The machines being demonstrated also had options for screens and headphones to accommodate voters with vision and hearing impairments. There were also a variety of options that would impact the price. It was possible, sales reps said, to tailor the equipment to each county’s specific needs and demographics.
Barton County has used a voting system from Omaha, Neb.-based Election Systems & Software for nearly a decade. However, the company is no longer manufacturing it, Zimmerman said. “They are still supporting it for the time being, but we will eventually need to buy new equipment.”
The Barton County Election Office put the ES&S iVotronics machines into service in 2006. “They typically sell them with a 10-year shelf life, but acknowledge that they generally last longer than that. We’re not having any issues right now.”
The question about how many years Barton County may wait is a good one, Zimmerman said. “I’m sort of sitting back, gathering information and seeing what the other clerks are doing.  I’ve never been one to be the first to jump in.”
It probably won’t happen this year or next. But, a new system may be in the cards come 2016 as Zimmerman’s office prepares for the presidential election.
The cost for the county in 2006 was about $300,000. However, there were Help America Vote Act Endowment funds at that time which covered 90 percent of the county’s costs.
“This purchase will be entirely county funded,” Zimmerman said. And, she has no good idea what the pricetag will be.
“I have a better idea after the demonstrations,” she said. “We are just beginning to scratch the surface with this whole issue.”
For now, she is trying to save as much of her budget as possible each year to transfer to reserves. “Hopefully we’ll have enough money saved by the time we need to buy,” Zimmerman said.
 The machines being shown Thursday would cost around $5,000 each. With the switch to paper ballots, Zimmerman estimates she will need 25-30 units, one per voting location with a spare or two.
Zimmerman’s office now deploys 89 iVotronics machines (which cost about $2,500 each) and one central tabulator. There is also the Election Results Manager software.
 “These machines are more expensive,” she said. But, “we will need fewer of them.”