HORRY COUNTY, SC (WBTW) – When you stop by the polls this election season, you’ll cast your vote on new machines thanks to a new statewide voting system change that will use paper ballots.
“With this new system, you will actually go in, you will vote on the machine, but you will also insert a ballot card, and it will print out your selections on that ballot card,” Sandy Martin, director of Horry County Voter Registration and Elections said.
Horry County is sending off their 15-year-old voting machines this week for the new paper-based machines.
Martin says the new system is more dependable and secure because now they will have a way to verify election results using the paper ballots.
“It’ll help us on election day with machines breaking down and that sort of thing because there’s not a lot of things that can go wrong with this system, so we think that’s going to be a lot better for us in the long run,” Martin said.
Not only will the new machines help with election security, the county will get more of them. They currently have around 700 of the old machines, but by next week, they’ll receive 964 of the new ones. Martin says this will help shorten lines at the polls.
The new machines will be ready to use in November during city elections.
However, Horry County is still looking for more poll workers.
“It’s a long day for a lot of people, and that’s the biggest reason we have issues getting poll workers, but we have a large number of poll workers with us every time so they’re very dependable, but we’re always looking for new workers,” Martin said.
Anyone who is interested in being a poll worker is asked to contact Horry County Voter Registration and Elections at (843) 915-5440.
