By Matt Sepic, KWMU
St. Louis, MO. – St. Louis election officials are still no closer to finding a replacement for the city's punch card voting system.
The election board says the city would have to scrounge up more than $2 million to convert from punch cards to optical scan ballots.
Federal money is available from the Help America Vote Act. But Republican election director Gary Stoff says the city would have to make a commitment by the end of the year.
"It seems to me that if we're not going to meet that deadline, then we would be making a commitment to stick with our punch card system at least for the next several years," Stoff said.
Stoff says the punch card system is working. But he says the city could fall behind the curve if a lot of other jurisdictions upgrade their equipment first.
Any new system would first need the approval of the Missouri Secretary of State.