Printer from area to supply ballots

The contract is at almostdouble the price.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Even though a Dayton company's proposal to print absentee ballots for the May primary was, by far, the least expensive, the Mahoning County Board of Elections chose another company for the job.
That's because Dayton Legal Blank, the company with the lowest proposal, did such a poor job with the absentee ballots for the November 2005 election, Mahoning elections board officials say.
"I heard nothing but bad stuff about Dayton" during the last election, said Michael Morley, an elections board member. "They were extremely unprofessional, late and it was a mess."
The paper absentee ballots from Dayton were supposed to be delivered to the Mahoning elections board 35 days before the November 2005 election, said board Director Thomas McCabe. But the company was two weeks late and only a partial shipment arrived at that time, he said.
That led to delays in mailing absentee ballots to voters, McCabe said.
It took another 11/2 weeks to get more absentee ballots from Dayton and elections employees had to drive to Columbus to pick them up, McCabe said. To make matters worse, Dayton didn't provide enough absentee ballots and the elections board had to obtain them from Olfield Graphics, an Austintown company, McCabe said.
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Olfield, under its former name of Youngstown Lithographic, handled the election board's absentee ballot contract for at least two decades until last year.
Dayton was to receive $10,503 for the November absentee ballots, but has yet to be paid, McCabe said. The elections board and the company are discussing the price, and McCabe expects it to be reduced.
Dayton Legal Blank's proposal for the May primary absentee ballots was $12,464. The board also received proposals from Olfield for $22,980, and from City Printing, a Youngstown company, for $25,792.
Citing the past problems with Dayton, the board decided to award the contract Friday to Olfield. The Austintown company's proposal is $10,516 more than the one submitted by Dayton Legal Blank.
The board is expected to have all of its electronic voting machines upgraded to comply with new state voting equipment requirements by early next month. State law requires the machines to include a paper voting trail. Also, poll workers will receive training in early April on the upgraded machines.
The paper trail add-on cost is $640,640, or $640 for each of the county's 1,001 voting machines.
At Friday's meeting, the board voted to rehire all of its staff. All votes were unanimous except board Vice Chairman Mark Munroe abstained from voting to retain Deputy Director Joyce Kale-Pesta. Munroe declined to comment on his decision.