The Johnson County Clerk’s Office is looking into switching e-pollbook vendors before the May primary, but the clock is ticking.
Electronic pollbooks, which poll workers use to check in voters at vote centers and make sure they have the right ballot, failed on Election Day, and the county last week asked its long-time vendor, Election Systems and Software, to cover the costs of purchasing new e-pollbooks from a different vendor while continuing to use ES & S’s voting machines.
“We have asked (ES & S) to pay for it, but as of right now, they have not committed to that,” County Clerk Trena McLaughlin said on Thursday. “We’re going to have to do something.”
McLaughlin and her staff are now weighing the other options because the county needs new e-pollbooks, she said.
Election Systems and Software promised it would make things right with the county after it failed more than 52,000 Johnson County voters in November, but so far has not delivered on that promise.
Two other vendors, including one that nearly half of Indiana counties use, have demonstrated their systems to staff at the county clerk’s office, McLaughlin said.
“I like them both. They’re both pretty comparable,” McLaughlin said.
The county is looking at KNOWiNK, a St. Louis-based election vendor, and VR Systems, Inc., a Florida-based election vendor, to replace its current e-pollbooks that they bought from Election Systems and Software, but that failed to work properly in the last election due to a lack of cloud storage and connectivity issues.
KNOWiNK’s e-pollbooks are basically iPads, McLaughlin said. She likes that they’re cordless and user friendly, and that 46 other counties in the state use them. VR Systems, Inc.’s e-pollbooks are convenient, she said. They can be left in their cases at every vote center. All a poll worker has to do is open the case’s lid and the e-pollbook inside is ready to use.
“I can’t say that I’m going to go with either, because that’s an Election Board decision,” McLaughlin said.
The county needs at least 70 e-poll books for the May primary election, and 90 for future elections, she said.
If the three-member Election Board decides it does want to switch e-pollbook vendors, the three-member Board of Commissioners will have to decide whether the county is willing to pay for it.
Either option would cost the county more than $150,000 this year and add to its annual election costs because the county would have two separate vendors — one for e-poll books and one for voting machines — and both would have to be updated, tested and certified.
Election Systems and Software vowed to provide replacement e-pollbook stands that would provide a better experience in all future elections and that are compatible with the county’s current e-pollbooks, and 100 additional iVoltronic voting machines for free. The company did not offer the county new e-pollbooks. The county’s voting machines are outdated, but worked fine on Election Day.
The Board of Commissioners was notified during its regular meeting on Monday that Election Systems and Software did not agree to all of the requests the county’s Election Board laid out in a list provided to the company last week. The Nebraska-based company, which serves eight counties in Indiana including Johnson, has repeatedly apologized and said it would work with the county to make things right.
So far, it hasn’t delivered on that promise, and local election officials are running out of time.
The commissioners decided during a special meeting last week that they would stick with the vendor, which also services the county’s voting machines. But they encouraged county attorneys to work with the company’s attorneys to come to an agreement about how to proceed contractually. The county provided the vendor with a list of requests that included recommendations from the Secretary of State’s Office, promises made by the vendor itself and the county’s requests for changes to its contract, which expires at the end of this year.
In December, the Secretary of State’s Office launched an investigation into Election Systems and Software’s slowdown in eight counties, but really, the state agency’s focus has been on what happened in Johnson County, where half of all registered voters cast ballots in a non-presidential election and half of those people cast ballots on Election Day.
Johnson County experienced the most severe slowdown. At times on Election Day, and in the days leading up to it, voters waited in lines for two or three hours. Some left and came back later. Other didn’t get a chance to vote.
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Here is a look at the two vendors the county is looking at for e-pollbooks. Johnson County Clerk Trena McLaughlin wants to make a switch before the May primary election, but the county would have to pay.
KNOWiNK
Start-up cost: $166,250
Annual fees: $33,000
Other Indiana counties: 46
VSTOP certification: Yes
VR Systems, Inc.
Start-up cost: $153,200
Annual fees: $11,700
Other Indiana counties: 7
VSTOP certification: Yes
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