Mansfield Looking into New Ballot Machines

The day after the presidential election, Mansfield selectmen discussed the possibility of replacing the ballot machines for all elections.

“We do at some point have to discuss the machines,” selectman Jess Aptowitz said. “Those machines are old. It’s time for to probably look at new machines. I think the technology of those machines are two or three generations back.”

While neither the selectmen or town clerk Marianne Staples know exactly how old the machines are, she said that they had them when she worked in Blackstone and they were replaced in 2003.

“They’re getting sick so it’s time to look at replacing them,” Aptowitz said.

Selectmen chair Olivier Kozlowski said that even replacement parts for the machines are unavailable.

“We’ve got other machines to cannibalize for parts,” he said.

During this year's national election, Staples had to deal with one machine breaking down totally and two others having a glitch. She said that while everything was fine, the multitude of voters made it a difficult day to say the least.