Virginia Beach, Va. - It’s throwback Thursday in Virginia Beach where the city's registrar is going old school. Voters will soon use paper ballots.
The faulty touch screen voting machines are now a thing of the past.
“It`s not just new voting machines,” says Beach General Registrar Donna Patterson. “It`s a totally different way of voting.”
Going back to paper ballots is something the Resort City hasn`t done since 2005, and it’s a change Patterson says that has been in the works for years.
“We had this plan in place long before the November election,” Patterson says. “We started working on getting a new voting system in 2012.”
According to a recent state report, 26 of the city's more than 800 electronic machines used during that election had alignment issues, which in some cases caused votes intended for one candidate to instead be cast for another.
With the new paper ballot and scanner system, Patterson says the upcoming June election is expected to run smoothly.
"We feel like we’ve got a really good system," she says. "It’s used throughout the country, but they also have a local presence in VA and NC."
The state report also cited serious security concerns with voting machines used in York, Accomack, and Southampton counties.
