When the county fired it’s longtime election vendor in February, it was unclear if either party would sue the other for breach of contract.
Neither will.
The Johnson County Board of Commissioners have signed a settlement agreement and mutual release with Election Systems and Software that ended that contract, which was slated to expire at the end of the year, and relieved the county from owing any money to the company for this year’s elections, which the county recently hired another vendor for.
The county will no longer owe ES and S the $53,709 promised in the contract for this November’s municipal election, but did pay the vendor a final $2,311 for setting up and printing ballots during the fall election, according to the settlement agreement.
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Both parties agreed to not file any lawsuits now or in the future, the settlement agreement says.
The decision to switch vendors came after ES and S did not agree to 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, when a system failure on Election Day in November left some voters waiting in line for hours and others not voting at all.Â
The Secretary of State’s Office ordered an investigation into what happened on Election Day in Johnson County. That investigation found that the vendor’s proposed workaround, which disconnected electronic pollbooks from a shared server to check in voters, violated state law.
The company agreed to a long list of recommendations the Secretary of State’s Office laid out, 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 willing to do what was necessary to mend its relationship with the county, the Johnson County Election Board and Board of Commissioners decided to part ways with the vendor and pursue other options, ultimately deciding to rent equipment and services from MicroVote, an area vendor, for this year’s elections, and explore a variety of options for future elections.
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The primary election is May 7, and voters will select city and town leaders who will represent them for the next four years.
Early voting begins Monday and continues until noon May 6, including two opportunities to vote on Saturdays, April 27 and May 4.
The county recently decided to switch election vendors, at least for this year. They are renting equipment and services from Indianapolis-based MicroVote.
Eighteen vote centers will be open this year, up from 13 during the last municipal election. There are two new vote centers.
In Edinburgh, voters will cast ballots at the new John R. Drybread Community Center, 100 E. Main Cross St., instead of at the library, which had been open as a vote center for years.
In Franklin, Fire Station No. 23 at 1150 Sloan Drive may be replaced with the Johnson County REMC, 750 International Drive. Both locations are on the north side of the city, east of U.S. 31.
Every city and town except New Whiteland has at least one primary race, and voters in Union and Needham Townships will be asked to head to the polls to vote on a Franklin Schools referendum, even though they wouldn’t normally vote during a municipal election.
The county trained about 150 pollworkers on new equipment for this year’s elections.
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Before you head to the polls, look for stories in upcoming Daily Journal’s about where candidates in all primary races stand on the issues in their communities, and why they’re running for office.
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