August 8th, primary voters in more than 60 Michigan communities will be using new equipment to cast their ballots.
Fred Woodhams is a spokesman for Michigan’s Secretary of State’s office. He says increasing technical glitches with aging voting machines prompted the change.
He says next month’s off-year primary vote will give communities a chance to try using the new equipment for the first time.
“As much as we would love to have everyone come out and vote who can vote on August 8th, the reality is turnout will not be very significant,” says Woodhams. “Certainly we wouldn’t want to be launching this equipment in a presidential election. It’s a good time to launch the new equipment now so everyone can get their feet wet and be prepared for a high turnout election down the road.”
The new voting equipment will make its debut in Detroit, Flint, Lansing and dozens of other cities August 8th.
The entire state is expected to be using new election equipment by August 2018.
