Butler County Board of Elections Deputy Director Jocelyn Bucaro said the next step is to narrow down to two options.
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“Then we’ll evaluate those to another round of demonstrations and evaluation, and hopefully our board will make a recommendation sometime in the early fall,” she said. “Then we’ll go to the commissioners hopefully before December.”
This is a priority that the county administration and commissions don’t disagree with, however, the county still needs to come up with the money, said Butler County Administrator Charlie Young.
“Our next step is to be meeting with the board of elections to bring the numbers together that they’ve been looking at, not just the upfront cost but the full life cycle costs of these units,” said Young.
The county will begin budget talks in October, and decisions on what can be funded in 2018 — and what cannot — will be discussed in November and December.
There are no other funding options at this point except for the county. It was believed the state would subsidize upwards of $150 million to county boards of elections, but that's not happening, at least according to the last biennium budget for the Kasich administration. Only $1 million was included in the state budget sent to Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and he vetoed the line item.
Butler County has 1,600 electronic voting machines it needs to replace. The Butler County Board of Elections typically sends between 1,200 to 1,300 voting machines to 89 polling locations for elections. These machines, which records a voter’s ballot to a unique card inserted into the machine, were purchased in 2005.
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“I was shocked that the state did not follow through with funding for it,” said Young. “I don’t know where we’ll go from here, or where we’ll find the money that it will take to put a new voting system in place but we’ve certainly had heard loud and clear that the board of elections has concerns about the voting (machines) as it should.”
But a first option, Young said, is not to borrow the money.
“We’re on a debt-reduction program and we’ve committed to be debt-free at the end of 2020, so borrowing money doesn’t fit in with that plan,” he said. “I don’t want to say it will never happen but that’s certainly not going to be the first choice we look at.”
Replacing Ohio’s voting equipment remains a priority for Secretary of State Jon Husted, said Sam Rossi, Husted’s press secretary.
“Our office has engaged legislators — who in the most recent budget process showed their interest in pursuing a workable solution — and stakeholders, such as the County Commissioners Association of Ohio and the Ohio Association of Election Officials, to determine a path forward.”
Husted also wrote to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, urging the federal government to make funding available to states “in order to ensure that all voting equipment is modern, secure, and functionally compliant with the current federal mandates,” Rossi said.
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