SC spent more than $30M on new voting ballot scanners. Senator says money ‘wasted’
After taking out more than $30 million in loans for new voting equipment before the 2024 general election, the new ballot scanners work similarly to the former machines, state Election Commission executive director Jenny Wooten told lawmakers Tuesday.
The state Election Commission agreed to pay more than $28 million for ballot scanners and other new voting equipment in late 2024. With additional sales tax and interest, the cost ballooned to nearly $32 million, Wooten said Tuesday. Former executive director Howard Knapp, who was fired by the commission in September, signed off on the requests.
The new ballot scanners work similarly to the old machines, Wooten told a Senate Finance panel Tuesday. The subcommittee is in the process of vetting agency budget requests for next fiscal year.
“We spent $31 million, and we haven’t seen a whole lot of benefit out of it,” said state Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Berkeley. Grooms chaired the subcommittee.
“Yes, sir,” Wooten said, nodding.
After the meeting, Grooms said the state “wasted” $31 million.
“It was a bad idea to purchase them,” Grooms said. He was previously against purchasing new machines and wasn’t surprised by the lack of benefits reported this year, saying upgrades were all “hype” from the vendor, Elections Systems & Software.
Wooten compared the upgrade to purchasing a new smartphone.
“Overall, I’ll be very honest with you, they work very similarly to the old machines,” she said. “I don’t think that was the version that you all were told when that decision was being made. But I liken it to: We had an IPhone 14, and we upgraded to an IPhone 16. They’re very similar, they look the same. There have been some issues with the machines. But across the board, I would say they work just like the old ones did.”
Knapp told the Senate Finance panel last year the commission had to upgrade all the state’s equipment to get additional voting machines.
Grooms said he believed the new machines had an additional post-election auditing function. Wooten said the agency had not done the specific audit because it would cost more.
The Election Commission received the first installment of the payment from the General Assembly last year, and now the agency is seeking the remainder of what it owes on the loan. The agency wants more than $21 million from the state to finish paying off the loan from TD Bank for the voting equipment.
The agency responsible for administering elections purchased the new machines with a loan. The Election Commission later requested $32 million from the General Assembly last year for the machines, which former chair Dennis Shedd signed off on. The agency only received about $11 million and are requesting the remainder of the funds this year.
The Election Commission had initially been late to pay the first installment on the loan in October, but it negotiated with the bank to pay the bill in February without a fee. However, the commission now owes additional interest on the loan.
Knapp, the former executive director, was fired by the commission in September. Shedd said he was ousted for multiple reasons, including allegedly falsifying documents to the commission, creating a toxic work environment and misleading the commission on a contract. In late October, Knapp was arrested by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and charged on several counts, including misconduct in office, embezzlement of public funds and use of office for financial gain.
Shedd chaired the commission when the new ballot scanners were approved. He resigned last month.
This story was originally published February 24, 2026 at 6:57 PM with the headline "SC spent more than $30M on new voting ballot scanners. Senator says money ‘wasted’."