Louisiana restarting bid process for new voting machines

Posted: Mar 11, 2020 / 02:27 PM CDT / Updated: Mar 11, 2020 / 02:27 PM CDT

A voter fills in a ballot in the presidential primary election at the the Summit View Church of the Nazarene Tuesday, March 10, 2020, in Kansas City, Mo. The polling place served two precincts as voters who were scheduled to vote at a nearby senior living facility were directed to vote at the church after the facility backed out due to coronavirus concerns. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana’s chief elections official says the state is restarting its stalled effort to replace its voting machines.

Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin told the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday that the solicitation for bidders is expected to go out shortly.

New machines won’t be in place quickly.

Louisiana will continue casting ballots for the presidential election this fall on the same types of voting system that it has used for 15 years.

Those machines don’t have the paper backup advocated by many experts.

Allegations of improper bid handling derailed a previous effort to replace Louisiana’s voting machines.

Louisiana intends to add a paper trail for the new voting machines.

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