COURTLAND
The Southampton County Board of Supervisors approved a measure on Monday to replace the AVS WINVote machines in all 13 precincts of Southampton County.

The Virginia State Board of Elections decertified this brand of machines in April following widely reported issues experienced by voters on Election Day 2014. An investigation ordered by Gov. Terry McAuliffe revealed that the machines were prone to crashing and extremely vulnerable to cyberattack.

The Southampton Electoral Board and Voter Registrar recommended that the Board of Supervisors purchase new ExpressVote machines, manufactured by Election Systems & Software LLC, and their partner, Printelect.

ES&S and Printelect will sell the county 15 voting machines, 15 digital image scanners, all associated tote bins and cases and all required training for $136,390. Southampton County will pay back the cost over the next five years through an agreement with U.S. Bancorp, which was facilitated by VML/VACo Finance.

A representative of the Southampton County voter registrar’s office confirmed that the state did not provide any funds for the purchase of the new machines.