As Pennsylvania works to protect the integrity of the upcoming elections by implementing new security measures, some county-level officials are expressing cost concerns, writes Jan Murphy for the Harrisburg Patriot-News.

This issue is of great importance to local officials, as Pennsylvania was one of the states that was targeted by an unsuccessful hacking attempt of its voter registration database by Russian operatives in 2016.

Now, after an order by Gov. Tom Wolf, Pennsylvania is moving to voting machines that leave a paper trail that can be audited. Other efforts include securing voter registration data. This means that election officials will keep looking for potential vulnerabilities and making changes ahead of the primary election.

“Pennsylvania voters can be completely confident that when they vote in the presidential primary, their vote will be counted accurately,” said Kathy Boockvar, Acting Secretary of the Commonwealth.

However, some county officials have been resistant to the changes, citing the cost of the new voting system as one of the key reasons. The replacement of the existing voting machines is expected to cost anywhere from $93 million to $150 million, depending on the system chosen.

Read more about new voting machines in the Harrisburg Patriot-News here.

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