43
Board OKs paper ballots contract
YOUNGSTOWN
With the switch from electronic touch-screen voting to paper beginning with the Nov. 8 election, the Mahoning County Board of Elections approved a $44,400 contract for paper ballots.
The county is leasing 140 optical-scanner machines to count paper ballots from Election Systems & Software, the Omaha, Neb., company that sold the county a touch-screen system in 2002.
The $792,257 lease will be paid over six years with the county owning the machines after the last payment.
Except for a $25,025 installation fee, the county isn’t paying anything this year for the machines, said Deputy Director Joyce Kale-Pesta. The fee for 2012 is $48,300, $76,050 for 2013, and eventually goes to about $200,000 a year for three years. There are also licensing and support- service fees.
The board had considered paying $530,700 for 110 machines, but because of the county’s financial issues it was decided that leasing was a better option, Kale-Pesta said.
Under the new system, those voting at the polls will be given paper ballots with paper sleeves to put them in after voting at private voting booths, said Director Thomas McCabe.
Then voters would go to optical-scanner machines and place their paper ballots into the machines to be counted, he said.
As for buying paper ballots, the board is paying for 185,000 of them, significantly more ballots than it will use.
Only 128,914 county residents voted in the 2008 election. Presidential- election years almost always have the largest turnout. Turnout will be much lower this November, McCabe said.
But state law requires the board to provide ballots for 100 percent of its registered voters plus an additional 1 percent, McCabe said.
Also, this contract doesn’t include ballots for early voters who come to the board of elections or receive them by mail, McCabe said.
The elections board will print those ballots in-house, he said.
The board voted Tuesday to select a proposal from ES&S even though it was the third-most expensive out of the four companies seeking the job.
The lowest proposal came from Dayton Legal Blank, $40,700, but the county has an ongoing dispute with the company over absentee paper ballots from the 2005 general election.
Dayton didn’t deliver the ballots on time, and the delivery was incomplete requiring election employees to travel to Columbus to pick up more ballots from the company, election board members and officials said Tuesday. Jeff Phillips, a sales representative for Dayton Legal Blank, said the election board changed a number of databases of voters forcing the delay.
A $25,000 bill was reduced to $16,000 by the company, but it remains unpaid. Because of that, Philips said that fee would have to be paid before Dayton would print ballots for next month’s election.
The second-lowest proposal came from Olfield Graphics of Youngstown, $43,475.
Years ago, Olfield’s absentee paper ballots were the wrong size and had to be cut to be read by optical scanners, but the company has done a good job for the county in other years, Kale-Pesta said.
Board members said they voted for ES&S primarily because the price difference is minimal, and it is that company’s machines.