The county’s longtime election vendor agreed to all state recommendations and made its own set of promises to the county, but so far has not agreed to any of the requests the county made after the company failed its voters last year.
County officials asked the company, Election Systems and Software, to agree to 20 recommendations — a combination of those laid out by the state and county, and including all of the promises made by the company itself.
But the company has not agreed to the county’s specific requests, which included buying the county new e-pollbooks from a vendor selected by the county for the election this year, providing free support services and testing for those e-pollbooks, and crediting the county back at least $54,000 for what it had paid the company in support services and a software license fees. The company did offer to refund a 2018 software fee.
The e-pollbooks are what vote center workers used to check in voters. The pollbook connections to a database of voters failed for hours during the November election.
The Secretary of State’s Office launched an investigation into the vendor’s inner workings on Election Day and in the days leading up to it, and compiled a list of recommendations they urged the county to require Election Systems and Software to follow if the county decided to continue its business with the vendor.
The company apologized repeatedly, and its leaders have said they were confident they would be able to make things right with the county.
But so far, Election Systems has not agreed to any of the four requests laid out by the county’s Election Board and Board of Commissioners, which made the decision last month to stick with the vendor at least through its current contract, which ends later this year, as long as they could agree to all of those recommendations by Jan. 31.
Instead, the company offered to "work hand-in-hand with Johnson County" to make sure their own e-pollbooks work better, according to a Jan. 22 letter the company sent the county.
County Clerk Trena McLaughlin wants to switch electronic pollbook vendors and has said previously that the county has to take some action. Part of McLaughlin’s job as county clerk is to conduct the elections.
Two other vendors — KNOWiNK and VR Systems, Inc. — will demonstrate their e-pollbooks to the election board at a meeting today.
If the county were to switch vendors, the county would likely have to pay for the new tablets with taxpayer money since Election Systems and Software has not agreed to the purchase. The cost of 90 e-pollbooks is expected to exceed $150,000.
Instead, the company offered to give the county 100 new iVotronic voting machines and new stands for the existing e-pollbooks. Neither the machines nor the stands caused any issues on Election Day, as the current machines are outdated but still work properly. The company said new stands "will provide a better experience in all future elections and that are compatible with current e-pollbooks," according to the company’s letter.
But the company has not offered or agreed to pay for any new e-pollbooks, the sole equipment that left voters waiting in lines for up to three hours on Election Day and in the days leading up to it.
The Voting System Technical Oversight Program (VSTOP) at Ball State University, which the state uses to test and certify all election equipment and software, found that the company did not purchase enough cloud storage to handle the volume of voters who showed up at the polls during last year’s non-presidential election, and the workarounds they used during a widespread slowdown that impacted seven Indiana counties violated state law.
The company also did not agree to provide free support services and testing for new e-pollbooks during this year’s primary and fall elections; pay back the county $53,709.43 for support services fees; or credit the county this year’s CentralPointe software license fee in addition to last year’s, all things the county asked for.
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WHAT: Johnson County Election Board public meeting
WHEN: 10 a.m. today
WHERE: Voter Registration Office, basement of the Johnson County Courthouse
WHY: To discuss e-pollbook options and see demonstrations from two vendors
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