The city of Winnipeg is shopping around for a large number of new voting machines to be used in next year's municipal election.

More than $1 million has been set aside to purchase 230 cutting-edge ballot counters, which officials said will cut down on voter fraud and make casting a ballot easier for visually impaired people.

Mark Lemoine, Winnipeg's senior elections official, described the new machines as being the size of a laptop and able to scan a ballot in a fraction of a second.

"Someone will come in, use a touch screen, wearing headphones to actually select the candidate that they want. And then the machine will actually print out the ballot for them, and that ballot will get inserted in the tabulator," Lemoine said.

And those daring enough to try and fool the new machines into accepting a falsified ballot should think again, Lemoine cautioned. Like a vending machine that accepts bills, it's hard to sneak a forgery past its sensors.

"They're very good at determining if the ballot is real," Lemoine said. "They're very good at interpreting the marks that are on there."

The new machines are needed because the current lot is 15 years old and are worn out from tallying millions of election ballots over that time. Lemoine said they're prone to breaking down.

The city plans to lease out the machines to other municipalities in the province when they're not being used in Winnipeg.

The next civic and school board election is Oct. 27, 2010.