The county has taken a major step toward switching election vendors and no longer using the company responsible for a major problem on Election Day in November that halted voting for hours across the county.
The three-member election board is recommending the county terminate its contract with Election Systems and Software after the company failed to meet the county’s requests even though it promised it would resolve the situation. The board also voted on Friday to secure new electronic pollbooks, which failed voters last year, as well as new voting machines and services. If the commissioners approve the election board’s recommendations, votes will now have a paper trail.
The county has used ES and S for all of its election equipment and services since the early 2000s, and has been hesitant to dissolve its long-term relationship with the vendor, until now. Election board member Cindy Rapp remained hesitant to end the contract right now and try to have a new system in place by May.
"But we also know that we asked ES and S for certain things and they have not agreed to that, which I don’t agree with," County Clerk Trena McLaughlin said. "I feel like they should be doing more for us."
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The final decision is up to the three-member Board of Commissioners whether to proceed with the Election Board’s recommendations — including specific vendor selections — and find a way to pay for the new equipment. It is also their decision whether to terminate the county’s contract with ES and S or sue the company.
The election board, county staff and members of the public watched demonstrations by three vendors during an election board meeting on Friday.
For e-pollbooks, the board is recommending KNOWiNK tablets, which about half of all Indiana counties use. Representatives from the company, MicroVote, touted that their main office is located in Indianapolis, about 40 minutes from the Johnson County Courthouse.Â
The election board wants to purchase 90 new e-pollbooks, which would be enough for both the 2019 and 2020 elections, McLaughlin said. It would cost taxpayers $166,250 initially, and then about $33,000 a year.
KNOWiNK uses Apple products and software which receive updates regularly, automatically. Scott Henry, the county’s IT director, recommended the board go with that system because it runs on an Apple platform, which is more user-friendly and intuitive, and less prone to system errors and viruses, Henry said.
"I was much more satisfied with their explanation of their cloud services. They do auto-scaling," he said.
"But I think both are good products. I think both are a significant improvement over what we have now."
Election Board members Phil Barrow and Rapp agreed KNOWiNK is more user- and worker-friendly, they said.
"The easier we can make it for them (voters and poll workers), the better. It’s been a hassle," Barrow said.
VR Systems, Inc., which also demonstrated use of its voting machine on Friday, is too complex. It would be too much to tackle in a short period of time, Henry said.
For voting machines, the election board chose to go with Chicago-based RBM Consulting, which reached out to the county to offer to help with this year’s election after hearing about its fallout with ES and S.
If the commissioners decide to go with RBM, the county would rent at least 80 machines, dubbed FreedomVote, and receive election services from the company in 2019 for about the same cost as its annual service fees to ES and S, McLaughlin said.
The brand new equipment would include a paper trail and make things easier for poll workers and election officials on Election Day, because they would not have to wait to tabulate all votes that were cast early. It would take each voter about 1.5 to 2 minutes to cast a ballot during a municipal election, depending on how many referendums are included, said Keith McGinnis, an account manager with RBM.
The county’s current machines still work, but are extremely outdated.
If the commissioners approve renting new voting machines, McGinnis said he could have 80 voting machines delivered to the county by Feb. 15, and poll workers would be trained in March, just weeks before the primary election. The company is also in the process of building 2,000 more machines, so there would be more available if needed, he said. That number depends on the number of vote centers election officials decide to have open during this year’s municipal election. That decision has not been made yet.
During the last municipal election, there were 13 vote centers, but there were no contested races in Greenwood, where a big chunk of Johnson County’s population lives. During this year’s election, there will likely be 15 to 18 vote centers, at least, said Reagan Higdon, first deputy clerk. There were 20 during the November election.
Rapp was hesitant to consider purchasing new voting machines just yet, mostly because of timing, but also because the county still has a contract with ES and S, she said.
"In my opinion, I’d hate to get new (voting machines) this year," Rapp said. "I think if we’re going to look at that in the future, that’s when we should talk about it. I don’t see a reason to do it this year."
The election board wants to look at several different options for voting machines before they enter into a contract for future elections. RBM would be a temporary fix, renting the machines to the county for this year’s election only.
Barrow questioned why she wouldn’t want to accept an offer for replacement machines now, and Rapp raised concerns about having enough time for training before the May election.
"When all of this started, they promised us the moon — anything we wanted to keep their business — and we all thought it would work out," Barrow said.
Henry recommended the board move forward with new voting machines as well.
"I think doing it this year with the municipal is going to be better than trying to teach it to everyone next year with a bigger election," McLaughlin said.
Eventually, the board voted unanimously to send all three recommendations on to the commissioners.
"We want overkill," Barrow said.
