MAHONING COUNTY Auditor opposes election expense

The county auditor said it is better to let Ohio's larger counties first implement groundbreaking voting technology.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- With Mahoning County in a precarious financial situation, now is not the time to make a $2 million to $3 million purchase for an electronic voting system, said Auditor George Tablack.
"I'm deeply concerned, and, in all honesty, I can't understand how we can afford a system like that," Tablack said Thursday during a meeting that included the three county commissioners and elections board officials. "Our sales tax revenues are negative; we're bringing in less money than we did last year; and we're spending more."
It would be wiser to let the state's larger counties be the leaders in implementing electronic voting technology, and after the cost of the systems declines it would then be something for Mahoning County to consider, Tablack said.
"It's always better to be the fish that swims under the shark than the shark when we make up only four percent of the state's population," the auditor added.
Price range: The board of elections opened proposals for an electronic voting system from six companies last week with the cost ranging from $2.03 million to $3.76 million.
Election officials want to sign a contract with a vendor during the next two to three months, but first they have to persuade the county commissioners to come up with the money. The new system's cost would eat up about 10 percent of the county's general fund budget, Tablack said.
The commissioners are receptive to the idea of an electronic voting system, but they were noncommittal Thursday, saying more meetings and evaluations need to be done before a decision is made.
The county has used paper ballots for the past 17 years. Breakdowns in the equipment that electronically reads the paper ballots caused the elections board to spend $120,000 to lease newer equipment for this year's election cycle, said Mark Munroe, the board's chairman.
The rental agreement for the equipment expires after the Nov. 6 election, which would technically leave the county without a reliable voting system, Munroe said. But a new lease or a lease extension could be worked out, he said.
Advantages: An electronic voting system, which uses a computer screen and a touch pad, has numerous advantages over paper ballots, Munroe said, including the fact that the county would not have to spend the nearly $200,000 it does annually to print paper ballots.
The county should consider buying new equipment to maintain paper ballots, which would cost about half as much as an electronic voting system, Tablack said.
skolnick@vindy.com