County clerk outlines voter purge, candidate filing changes, equipment bids and election budget

The county clerk told the committee the office mailed purge notices in July, reported returned cards and outlined several administrative and procurement steps for upcoming election cycles. "We've had roughly 2,400 cards returned," County Clerk Amanda said, adding that 75,724 registration cards were mailed in the purge process and three returns indicated deceased voters. Nut graf: The clerk's office described voter-roll maintenance results, a change in how candidate filing forms are distributed to avoid county legal liability, an election-judge pay increase resolution that the committee forwarded to the full board, a recommended vendor for new electronic poll books, and line-item changes and grants that affect the election budget. Amanda told the committee that purge mailings allowed the office to clean up registrants' addresses and that staff have processed returned cards and other updates. On candidate filing, she emphasized the office will make forms available for candidates to pick up or download but will not assemble or hand out full packets because "if we give you the wrong forms, the county can be liable and get sued if somebody gets thrown off the ballot." She said staff will show which form is a P-1 or which sheet lists the forms but will not advise candidates which specific forms to file, citing the county's liability concerns. On election-judge pay, Amanda noted a previously passed committee resolution to raise the base pay and said the office would take the matter to the full board after clarifying tax-reporting thresholds. She raised concerns that paying judges more could trigger 1099 reporting: "At a 300 base pay per election ... that is gonna push them to receive a $10,99 because anything over $599 has to be reported to the IRS," she said; a staff member replied that the reporting threshold was raised to $2,000 beginning in 2026. The committee voted to forward the judge-pay resolution to the full board (motion by James Bailey, second Matt Slager; motion carries). On equipment procurement, Amanda reviewed two five-year bids for new pull books. She said Liberty Systems' five-year total would be "$501,000" as submitted, with an additional $14,000 to meet the county's label-printer needs. The other bidder, NoInk (presented with GBS), quoted a five-year total of "$393,300" after required additions. Amanda recommended NoInk based on cost and staff preference and said she would correct the resolution text to spell the vendor name as "NoInk" (one word) before forwarding documentation. Budget and grants: Amanda described line-item changes tied to having two elections in the cycle, added maintenance and software licensing costs for tabulators and ballot-marking devices beginning Jan. 1, 2026, and said the county has an IVRS voter-registration grant approved for roughly $98,000 and will pay an annual license of about $68,000 after implementation. She also said the Polling Place Accessibility (PPA) grant opportunity remains open and she may submit applications by September. Actions taken in committee included forwarding the election-judge pay resolution to the full board (motion by James Bailey; second by Matt Slager; motion carries) and forwarding the clerk's budget to the finance committee (motion by Nancy Urich; second by Miss Bernal; motion carries). Ending: The clerk said the office will continue implementation tasks, pursue the IVRS rollout and return to the committee with clarified language and corrected procurement/resolution documents.