Commissioners debate leasing policy, fees for election equipment under new digital system

Limestone County commissioners discussed whether the county should continue leasing election equipment to entities outside the county now that the county has transitioned to new digital voting equipment.

The county's Elections Administrator told commissioners she is unsure how the county's processes will work with the new equipment and said she would be cautious about leasing outside the county while staff learn the new system. “I am not familiar with how our process is gonna work with new equipment,” the Elections Administrator said. The administrator noted that under the county's current practice the leasing rate had been set at 1 percent and that state law allows a maximum of 10 percent of the purchase price for county-owned equipment when leased to a political subdivision.

Commissioners asked whether any policy or code required leasing to outside entities; the Elections Administrator said the election code requires the county clerk to contract for elections when requested, but that the local wording about charges applies to political subdivisions “wholly or partially situated in the county” and does not clearly specify entities outside the county. Commissioners discussed options including keeping the rate at 1 percent, raising it to a higher uniform rate for all entities, or handling out-of-county requests on a case-by-case basis.

No final policy change was adopted at the meeting. Commissioners said they could put any future out-of-county lease requests on an agenda for a one-time decision and left the current fee in place while staff clarify how leasing will work with the new equipment.