The county’s Board of Commissioners has given the OK for the Election Board to take the next step in finding a vendor for the 2020 presidential election and beyond.
Next comes the process of soliciting bids from vendors, watching demonstrations of their voting equipment and figuring out how to pay for it. Besides the deadline of being ready for the May primary, the cost of the new equipment has to be figured into the 2020 budget, which will be set later this summer.Â
As of now, there is no plan in place for next year’s election, which is expected to produce a massive voter turnout, election officials have said.
The commissioners on Monday gave their blessing — a formality, they said — for the Election Board to solicit requests for bids from various vendors, choose the best one and bring it to them for final approval. The commissioners will enter into an agreement and sign the contract with the vendor, so they have final say.
Clerk Trena McLaughlin is hoping for an outright purchase, she told the commissioners. But the commissioners encouraged her to look at other options as well, such as a lease-to-buy option, which would give the county a little more time to come up with the amount of money that’s needed.
The commissioners are aware they don’t have much choice; the county has to have a vendor in place for next year; but they don’t know yet where the money to buy all new equipment is going to come from. It has not been budgeted, and is expected to cost up to $1.8 million, officials revealed Monday.
For years, the county put off purchasing new voting equipment due to the cost, despite several urges from election officials to find the money and make the move. That left the county’s previous election equipment old and outdated.
Then, during the November election, a glitch in the electronic pollbooks left some voters waiting in lines for hours, and others not voting at all. It also led to an investigation by the Secretary of State’s Office, which found that the vendor, Election Systems and Software, violated state law with its proposed workaround.
This year, the county is renting election equipment from local vendor MicroVote, a quick fix that was needed after the county fired ES and S in February. That equipment ran smoothly during the May primary election, which saw a 10 percent voter turnout, and will be used again in November.
It was a hit, McLaughlin told the commissioners on Monday.
"Everybody I’ve talked to loved it. We had no problems with it," McLaughlin said.
Election officials will review vendors’ proposals and interview some of them in July. A decision about what company to hire and what equipment to buy should be made by mid-August.Â
The Election Board wants the new contract to be for five years, rather than the two- and three-year agreements the county had with ES and S, in an effort to get the best price.
Election officials can reject certain vendors based on experience and qualifications, the request said. They have added the following stipulation to a list of required qualifications: Strength and number of positive and negative references as well as first-hand experience with Johnson County and vote centers.
