CLAYTON, Mo. (KMOX) — St. Louis County election officials are going shopping for new voting equipment.
The Election Board is seeking bids to replace all the voting machines, software and equipment by the November 2020 Presidential election.
Related: Paper Ballot Machine Issues Reported in St. Louis County
Democratic Director of Elections Eric Fey says it's gotta be tamper proof.
"So we will drill down into pretty close detail of all of the proposers on what their security proposals are," Fey told KMOX's Kevin Killeen. "Do they safeguard the data?"
Fey says the bids will be evaluated by a bi-partisan team with advice from a voter security expert.
Fey expects the cost to be around $10 million. That was the cost of the current system bought back in 2006, and Fey believes the system needs a major update.
"It's the software behind the scenes, the software we use to program the ballots and count the ballots. It's the central scanners where we count the absentee ballots. And it's the actual voting machines that voters experience in the polling places."
Fey hopes that the new machines lead to better voting experiences for St. Louis County voters.