BATON ROUGE- Three companies have submitted bids to provide new voting technology for the state in response to a recently released request for proposals, or RFP.

According to a release, the RFP calls for the replacement of both early voting and election day voting machines. Tuesday marked the deadline for submissions by companies.

Until the final selection is made, all bids will remain confidential under state law.

The companies that submitted proposals include Dominion Voting Systems Corp., Election Systems & Software, Inc. (ES&S) and Hart InterCivic, Inc.

Officials envision replacing approximately 10,000 machines and replacing them with smaller, more secure, touchscreen models that provide a voter verified paper receipt to enhance post-election recounts or audits when necessary.

Louisiana, like many other states, purchased its voting equipment back in 2005 when federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) dollars were first sent to states, according to the release. Last month, Congress released approximately $5.889 million in additional HAVA funding to be used for technology improvements.