The Department of State has given Pennsylvania counties until the end of next year to procure new voting machines that keep a paper trail, writes Stephen Caruso for City & State Pennsylvania.

The mandate comes with $13.5 million in federal funding from the budget recently passed by Congress. However, any expenditure of commonwealth funds would have to be approved by the state legislature.

“We have been planning for some time to bring Pennsylvania’s voting machines up to 21st-century standards of security, auditability, and resiliency,” said Department of State Secretary Robert Torres. “The federal assistance could not come at a more opportune moment.”

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The new voting machines have to keep a paper record of every single vote in case the results have to be audited after an event that potentially alters ballots.

The changes were announced by Gov. Tom Wolf in February. They are partly in response to Russia’s widespread electronic malfeasance directed against the nation’s voting infrastructure during the last presidential election.

The Dec. 31, 2019 deadline is only for the procurement of new voting machines, not their implementation, according to Department of State spokesperson Wanda Murren.

Read more about Pennsylvania’s voting machines at City & State Pennsylvania here.

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