MAHONING ELECTIONS BOARD High bidder gets kit contract

The board will pay more than $9,000 for the kits.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Although Mahoning County Board of Elections officials say election supply kits could be produced in-house to save a few bucks, particularly in light of the county's fiscal problems, it awarded a contract for the work today to the highest bidder.
The board gave the contract to Barrett Bros. because of its history with the Springfield-based company. Elections Director Michael Sciortino recommended Barrett because the company has provided the election kits to the county for years and poll workers are comfortable with them.
Barrett Bros.' bid was $20.60 a kit, compared with $19.25 a kit from Dayton Legal Blank of Dayton.
Elections Chairman Mark Munroe said the two bids were close in price, and there were unspecified problems with Dayton's kits years ago when they provided them to the county.
"There is some fear of the unknown," he said.
About the kits
The board needs 133 kits for the May primary and 312 kits for the November general election.
That works out to $9,167 to Barrett, compared with $8,566.25 sought by Dayton.
The kits include legal forms posted at poll sites, poll books and envelopes.
Sciortino said the poll books are not really needed, and elections board workers could "very easily" print the kits themselves. This could be the last time the elections board awards a contract for election kits, he said.
"With the county's fiscal condition, it might be advantageous to bring this in-house," Sciortino said.
Also, the board awarded a $24,970 contract to Youngstown Lithographing to handle the printing of absentee ballots for the primary and general elections. The company beat out Dayton Legal Blank, which bid $26,100, for the contract.
Elections board officials have talked for the past year about eventually printing absentee ballots in-house from the county's touch-screen voting system.
skolnick@vindy.com