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Fact check: Did any states switch to new voting machine systems before the 2024 election?
Executive Summary
Connecticut and South Carolina both deployed new voting equipment in time for the 2024 U.S. presidential election, with Connecticut explicitly replacing nearly two-decade-old tabulators and South Carolina equipping every county with newly procured machines [1] [2]. Other jurisdictions—domestic and international—also moved to new systems or staged large rollouts around 2024, but the timing and scope vary: Brazil completed massive deliveries of new electronic machines for its 2024 contests, while other U.S. states reported testing or procurement actions that did not clearly finish before the 2024 election [3] [4] [5].
1. Clear claims: which places said they switched machines before 2024?
Reporting identifies Connecticut as having replaced old tabulators and received new equipment in time for the 2024 presidential election, a concrete claim about an operational transition [1]. South Carolina is reported to have spent roughly $30 million to buy and deploy new voting machines across every county with hardened software and air-gapped designs ahead of the same election cycle, which implies statewide implementation [2]. Those two state-level claims are the strongest direct assertions in the dataset; other entries describe procurement, testing, or deliveries that may or may not equate to a full statewide switch before November 2024 [4] [3] [5].
2. International context that changes the framing of “switched”
Large-scale foreign rollouts complicate how one interprets the question about “switching” systems before 2024. Brazil’s electoral authority delivered over 175,000 new electronic voting machines to regional courts for 2024 elections, with substantial distribution completed by January 2024—this is a clear, nationwide upgrade for a country, not a U.S. state, and shows contemporaneous global activity in voting-technology turnover [3]. An Argentine municipal example described a paper-ballot reform, but it is not a U.S. state and does not alter which U.S. states switched systems before 2024 [6].
3. States that tested or began transitions but likely missed 2024
Some U.S. jurisdictions engaged in testing and procurement processes that indicate near-term change but do not prove a completed switch before the 2024 election. Louisiana began testing new systems with modern requirements in August 2025, which clearly postdates 2024 and therefore did not affect the 2024 election [4]. Local reports of county-level acquisitions—such as the Monroe County Board of Elections obtaining new technology—show movement but do not establish whether those purchases translated into statewide use before November 2024 [5].
4. Security, law, and procurement disputes that affect rollouts
Legal and legislative activity around voting equipment shaped what got deployed and when. A proposed U.S. bill, the SECURE IT Act, aimed to improve voting-machine security through penetration testing and vulnerability disclosure, reflecting a policy push that could speed or constrain deployments depending on certification timelines [7]. Separately, a legal dispute involving the disqualification of a vendor from a bidding process for elections demonstrates that procurement litigation can delay or redirect equipment rollouts, with implications for whether planned upgrades reached ballots in 2024 [8].
5. Reconciling timing, scope, and definitions of “switched”
The most reliable way to answer whether any states switched before 2024 is to separate complete statewide deployments from partial or pending actions. Connecticut and South Carolina are documented as having implemented new machines statewide in time for the 2024 presidential election, which meets a strict definition of “switched” [1] [2]. Other entries in the dataset point to deliveries, county purchases, testing, or international rollouts that either occurred outside the U.S. or were not completed before November 2024, so they should not be conflated with statewide switches in U.S. states [3] [4] [5].
6. Bottom line, caveats, and what to watch next
In summary, yes—some U.S. states did switch to new voting machine systems before the 2024 election, notably Connecticut and South Carolina according to contemporaneous reporting [1] [2]. However, procurement cycles, testing schedules, legal disputes, and international rollouts produced varied timelines; several jurisdictions undertook major logistics that either were completed outside the 2024 window or applied to non-U.S. elections [3] [4] [8]. For a definitive, up-to-date inventory of which states completed full statewide deployments prior to November 2024, consult official state election office certification records and post-election audits from each state.