Connecticut's voting tabulators are older than some of the people casting ballots. But an upgrade is finally coming.

Election leaders unveiled new, high-speed voting tabulators on Thursday.

Voters won’t notice much difference at the polls, officials said. But the machines should mean faster results on election night.

Most of Connecticut’s voting tabulators are two decades old – and just like the rest of us, they’re not what they used to be. Local registrars sometimes have to find spare parts on eBay because their machines are obsolete.

“The iPhone wasn’t invented the last time we updated our equipment,” said Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas. “What isn’t in their job description is fixing a voting machine because the roller in the tabulator melted in 100-degree weather.”

At a news conference in South Windsor, Thomas announced that Connecticut will purchase hundreds of new tabulators from Nebraska-based Election Systems and Software. ES&S was chosen from four bidders.

“This landmark agreement will infuse Connecticut with 2,700 new tabulators that have the latest security features, are easy to use, and very similar to our current equipment,” said Thomas.

But most of the tabulators won’t be in place for this year’s presidential election.

In November, the machines only launch in nine towns as part of a pilot program:

Thomas expects the rest of the state to get the machines next summer.

“There was not enough time in this lengthy procurement process, between all of the questions and testing that we had to undertake, to get the equipment in place for the 2024 general election,” she said.

The tabulators will be paid for with $20 million out of $25 million in borrowing approved by the State Bond Commission last fall.

Some of the new machines can count 72 ballots per minute – without stopping for overvotes, write-ins or blank ballots. They are also capable of handling Ranked-Choice Voting, where voters pick a first, second and third choice. A new task force is exploring whether Connecticut should implement RCV for local elections and primaries, which often have multiple candidates.

In terms of security, they still use paper ballots and are not connected to the internet. UConn’s Center for Voting Research Technology evaluated all four vendors for security and reliability.

“We began with a broad cyber security assessment of the election architecture proposed by the vendor, including the election management system, removable media and tabulators,” said Dr. Alex Russell, the center’s director.

ES&S already supplies voting machines to 1,500 jurisdictions covering “many millions” of voters.

“We are committed to ensuring the integrity, security, and transparency of the voting technology,” said ES&S vice president Adam Carbullido. “Elections are everything that we do.”

The new machines will debut next month in the 9 pilot communities. Early Voting starts on October 21.