City Clerk Christine Touma-Conway estimated the new machines will cost Methuen about $70,000.
"The machines we have are more than 16 years old, so it's time. They work fine, there are no issues with them, but they haven't made (this model) since the mid-2000s and there's a new generation out," Touma-Conway said. "They've been out for a while, and we just feel like it's time for us to look in that direction before we start having issues with the old machines."
The city began accepting the bids on March 27 and continued to accept them through 10 a.m. on April 10.
Methuen currently has 13 AccuVote tabulators, the machines that suck in ballots and tally votes — one for each voting precinct and one to remain at City Hall, to count the final totals from each of the precincts. The 13th machine was bought later than the other 12 for a low price, and the city will not buy a 13th machine from the bid, Touma-Conway said.
"The AccuVote machines have performed valiantly for longer than I've been the clerk. They're great machines," Touma-Conway said. "But at some point you have to start thinking, 'OK, where are we pushing the envelope?' We have to be a little forward-looking here."
Lawrence also uses AccuVote machines, and City Clerk William Maloney said they've been in service for about a quarter century.
"It's a really durable product, the ones we're using now. They very rarely fail, and if they do, it's mainly because of the ballots — they (federal ballots) are too big," he said. During the 2016 presidential election, "broken" voting machines were reported in Lawrence, but election-monitoring groups said they were generally satisfied voting issues were being resolved as they came up.
Maloney said the manufacturer of the AccuVote machines anticipated parts would be available for the discontinued model only for another three to five years.
"The obvious next step is they're going to break down because they're not repairable," he said.
Methuen hopes to avoid that conundrum — and any election day chaos — by ordering their new fleet of machines now.
"You don't want to learn that you've got an issues in the middle of an election," Touma-Conway said.
©2017 The Eagle-Tribune (North Andover, Mass.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
