County will switch election vendors, fire company

It’s official: Johnson County will fire its longtime election vendor after its Election Day failure in November left at least hundreds of voters disenfranchised.

Twelve weeks before the May primary, the Board of Commissioners on Monday voted 2-0 to terminate its contract with Election Systems and Software more than three months after a technical glitch and workarounds that violated state law on Election Day and in the days leading up to it left some voters waiting in two- or three-hour lines to cast their ballots and others not voting at all, and several residents demanding change.

The board also voted to follow two other recommendations by the three-member Election Board — to purchase new electronic poll books, which is the technology that failed to work properly during the last election, as well as new voting machines and election services.

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Commissioner Kevin Walls was absent during Monday’s meeting.

Altogether, the switch will cost taxpayers about $300,000.

It is unclear at this point if the county will need the Johnson County Council to appropriate money to cover any costs. That will depend on whether there are any fees related to terminating its contract with ES and S early. The county’s contract with the vendor was slated to end after this year’s election.

The decision to switch vendors comes after ES and S failed to agree to four requests the county made to the company in an effort to resolve the situation, continue its business with the vendor and make this year’s voting experience — and all future voting experiences — better than the last.

The company agreed to the long list of recommendations the Secretary of State’s Office laid out following an investigation, and made a couple promises to the county itself, but did not agree to any of the county’s requests, which included purchasing new e-pollbooks from a vendor of the county’s choosing and crediting the county the money to cover its 2019 software licensing fees.

Once it became clear ES and S was not going to take the necessary steps to mend its long-term relationship with the county, Clerk Trena McLaughlin turned to several other counties for ideas about which other e-pollbook vendors to consider moving forward, and watched demonstrations from several.

In the end, the county selected KNOWiNK tablets, which about half of all Indiana counties use and praise.

Johnson County plans to purchase 90 new e-pollbooks, which would be enough for both the 2019 and 2020 elections, McLaughlin has said. The new tablets will cost $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 county 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, he said.

Election Board members Phil Barrow and Cindy Rapp agreed KNOWiNK is more user- and worker-friendly following demonstrations from multiple vendors on Friday.

For voting machines, the election board chose to go with Chicago-based RBM Consulting, which reached out to the county and offered to help with this year’s election after hearing about its fallout with ES and S.

The county will rent at least 80 machines, dubbed FreedomVote, and receive election services from the company in 2019. Leasing the machines, including licensing and software fees, will cost about $130,000, about the same cost as its annual service fees to ES and S, McLaughlin said.

The brand new equipment will include a paper trail, which state legislators have been pushing to make law, and make the process easier for poll workers and election officials on Election Day, because they will not have to wait to tabulate all votes that were cast early. With the new machines, it is expected to take each voter about 1.5 to 2 minutes to cast a ballot during this year’s municipal election, depending on how many referendums are included, said Keith McGinnis, an account manager with RBM.

The county’s current machines are outdated and have needed to be replaced for some time. In fact, it has been a topic of discussion the last couple of years, but the commissioners continuously said there wasn’t enough money in the budget and that they were waiting to see if there were any technological advances or state and federal mandates, and as a result monies, before they bought new equipment.

For those reasons, and a $1.1 million price tag, the commissioners voted down a proposal in August of 2017 for a new system, which would have been purchased and serviced through ES and S as well. The county paid the vendor about $100,000 a year for its services.

The county bought its current system — including 450 voting machines — in 2003 for $2.4 million, most of which came from the county’s savings at the time.

The commissioners will still need to decide before the 2020 presidential election which vendor they want to buy all new machines from and have run its elections, which will likely cost upwards of $1 million.

RBM has agreed to lease the machines to the county for this year’s municipal election only.

McGinnis told election officials he will have 80 voting machines delivered to the county by the end of the week, and poll workers will likely 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 will 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.

“I want to thank Trena (McLaughlin), you especially, because I know coming into the job and right off the bat having to deal with all of this … I know you guys put a lot of work into it. I really do appreciate it,” Ron West said.

“And I appreciate you bringing it into the public sector too, to where they could come and hear and question and ask those things. A lot of times, they don’t think they have that opportunity, so I do appreciate that too,” Commissioner Brian Baird added. Johnson County Council to appropriate money to cover any costs. That will depend on whether there are any fees related to terminating its contract with ES and S early. The county’s contract with the vendor was slated to end after this year’s election.

The decision to switch vendors comes after ES and S failed to agree to four requests the county made to the company in an effort to resolve the situation, continue its business with the vendor and make this year’s voting experience — and all future voting experiences — better than the last.

The company agreed to the long list of recommendations the Secretary of State’s Office laid out following an investigation, and made a couple promises to the county itself, but did not agree to any of the county’s requests, which included purchasing new e-pollbooks from a vendor of the county’s choosing and crediting the county the money to cover its 2019 software licensing fees.

Once it became clear ES and S was not going to take the necessary steps to mend its long-term relationship with the county, Clerk Trena McLaughlin turned to several other counties for ideas about which other e-pollbook vendors to consider moving forward, and watched demonstrations from several.

In the end, the county selected KNOWiNK tablets, which about half of all Indiana counties use and praise.

Johnson County plans to purchase 90 new e-pollbooks, which would be enough for both the 2019 and 2020 elections, McLaughlin has said. The new tablets will cost $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 county 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, he said.

Election Board members Phil Barrow and Cindy Rapp agreed KNOWiNK is more user- and worker-friendly following demonstrations from multiple vendors on Friday.

For voting machines, the election board chose to go with Chicago-based RBM Consulting, which reached out to the county and offered to help with this year’s election after hearing about its fallout with ES and S.

The county will rent at least 80 machines, dubbed FreedomVote, and receive election services from the company in 2019. Leasing the machines, including licensing and software fees, will cost about $130,000, about the same cost as its annual service fees to ES and S, McLaughlin said.

The brand new equipment will include a paper trail, which state legislators have been pushing to make law, and make the process easier for poll workers and election officials on Election Day, because they will not have to wait to tabulate all votes that were cast early. With the new machines, it is expected to take each voter about 1.5 to 2 minutes to cast a ballot during this year’s municipal election, depending on how many referendums are included, said Keith McGinnis, an account manager with RBM.

The county’s current machines are outdated and have needed to be replaced for some time. In fact, it has been a topic of discussion the last couple of years, but the commissioners continuously said there wasn’t enough money in the budget and that they were waiting to see if there were any technological advances or state and federal mandates, and as a result monies, before they bought new equipment.

For those reasons, and a $1.1 million price tag, the commissioners voted down a proposal in August of 2017 for a new system, which would have been purchased and serviced through ES and S as well. The county paid the vendor about $100,000 a year for its services.

The county bought its current system — including 450 voting machines — in 2003 for $2.4 million, most of which came from the county’s savings at the time.

The commissioners will still need to decide before the 2020 presidential election which vendor they want to buy all new machines from and have run its elections, which will likely cost upwards of $1 million.

RBM has agreed to lease the machines to the county for this year’s municipal election only.

McGinnis told election officials he will have 80 voting machines delivered to the county by the end of the week, and poll workers will likely 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 will 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.

“I want to thank Trena (McLaughlin), you especially, because I know coming into the job and right off the bat having to deal with all of this … I know you guys put a lot of work into it. I really do appreciate it,” Ron West said.

“And I appreciate you bringing it into the public sector too, to where they could come and hear and question and ask those things. A lot of times, they don’t think they have that opportunity, so I do appreciate that too,” Commissioner Brian Baird added.