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“I don’t like the state saying you have to use it or lose,” Commissioner Don Dixon said. “I think if they are going to allocate that money, then if we have a plan to bundle that with something else, and it may be a year before we’re there, we should be allowed to do that.”
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Eventually, the county is going to need new voting machines — elections officials have mentioned it several times during the annual budget hearings with the commissioners. The board has estimated the cost at $4 million.
Deputy Director Jocelyn Bucaro said the recommended system from a company called Tenex will save the county money in the long run because it is a much more efficient. She said benefits to voters include:
- Voters can verify their name and address while checking in and are able to see that information on the tablet;
- Voters in a primary will be able to select which party's ballot they want on the screen, rather than telling an election official, making the voting process more private;
- Intuitive features for poll workers will reduce likelihood of errors and enable all voters, including provisional voters, to be checked in at one station;
- Voters in the wrong location can have turn-by-turn directions texted, emailed or printed for them to the correct location.
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The state appropriated $12.7 million in 2015, hoping to entice more counties to purchase e-poll books. Butler County received its current e-polling books — which cost more than $1 million for equipment and services — through a lawsuit settlement with a previous vendor in 2011.
Bucaro said that technology is no longer adequate for the board’s needs. That’s primarily because it doesn’t function in polling locations that have multiple precincts because it can’t handle the volume of voters, she said. The current system also doesn’t allow the board to manage its own data.
Bucaro told the commissioners the e-poll books have allowed the board to save $15,000 per county-wide election. She said the new technology, which will provide real-time poll results — eliminating an $18,000 bill for an outside vendor on election nights to provide results — will save more money with some of the added features. Bucaro says the new technology will also be easier for poll workers to learn, cutting down on training time.
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Dixon and Commissioner T.C. Rogers expressed concern that the technology, which was considered state-of-the-art, needs to be replaced after five years.
“My phone and my computer, I’m like using them about every five minutes,” Rogers said. “Whereas with poll books, you’re using them twice a year, maybe three times. So really five years is one year in computer hours.”
Bucaro said the recommended technology has everything they need for now and into the foreseeable future.
“Technology is what it is, it has a shelf life,” Bucaro said. “Your computer will only last you a certain amount of years… This system will not expire in five years. I would expect it would last us 10 years. I can’t make promises because some of it is dependent on support for the operating system and security measures, but that is our intention that this would last us 10 years.”
Dixon was also concerned about spending $130,435 worth of general fund taxpayer money on a product if it just gives politicians election results sooner.
“I’m not in favor of spending tax dollars to make it faster just so somebody can have the results 60 minutes sooner than they would have before,” Dixon told the Journal-News, but he is leaning in favor of approving the expenditure.
“With the state putting up $400,000, that’s a big part of the cost to purchase it, so it’s hard to say no to that,” Dixon said. “I just want to make sure it works with future systems because we’re going to eventually have to upgrade. I’m not so concerned about how fast it works, I want to know how accurate it is.”
Rogers said he is also in favor of the e-poll books, but he too would rather hold off on the purchase until other election issues — new voting machines — have been decided.
“I would like to wait until the state during their budget gets it worked out how they are going to handle the voting machines,” he said. “But you have to go with what you’ve got.”
Joshua Eck, press secretary for Secretary of State Jon Husted, said the money was an appropriation as part of a state law that passed two years ago, so there is no way they can easily move the deadline. He also said the money can only be spent on the e-poll books, so they couldn’t just hand over the money to the county, they need to see that there is a vendor contract in place.
“This money was allocated to the fund in the last two-year budget cycle, so if there is money left in the fund at the end of it, it gets rolled back into the general revenue fund,” he said.
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