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Grand County clerk, staff and commissioners weigh switching voting systems; board delays decision
Summary
County leaders, election staff and vendor representatives discussed whether to switch Grand County’s voting system from Dominion to ClearBallot; commissioners declined to change systems for this year and directed further review and vendor briefings during the next budget cycle.
Grand County commissioners heard a detailed presentation and public comment June 24 about whether to switch the county’s election management system from Dominion Voting Systems to ClearBallot.
Several longtime local election officials and former county clerks urged caution. John Bridal and former Clerk and Recorder Sarah Rosine, both of whom addressed the board during public comment, urged the county to address internal election-administration issues before switching platforms. "Until these critical election issues are addressed and resolved, it's really a fool's errand to change out our ballot system ..." Bridal said, referencing a consultant report that identified workflow and training gaps in the clerk’s office.
Current clerk staff described a steep learning curve since 2022 and said they prefer limiting change while the office builds capacity. "Additional challenges would be, in my opinion, I would prefer to stick with Dominion in some cases because I've learned a little bit about that system," said the county’s election lead (first identified in the transcript as Clerk staff). At the same time, the election lead said she had seen a ClearBallot demonstration and found its user interface easier to use.
Representatives from ClearBallot (Matt Dwyer and Kyle Ruehl) answered commissioners’ questions about staffing and support. Dwyer said ClearBallot serves tens of millions of voters nationally and that the company has added staff and a Colorado-based employee who previously worked for Dominion and now does ClearBallot ballot design work.
Staff and the vendors discussed costs. ClearBallot presented a proposal that county staff estimated would cost about $200,000 over eight years; Dominion’s six-year proposal staff summarized at about $168,000 (figures as presented in the meeting). ClearBallot’s first-year incremental cost in staff materials discussed was about $39,000 for the current cycle; Dominion staff explained the county is already under contract for this year with Dominion and a switch would add costs if implemented mid-year.
After questions about training, backup scanners, ballot programming and support, commissioners said they were not prepared to switch this year. They asked staff to present both vendors during the next budget cycle and recommended that the clerk’s office build internal capacity so limited staff are not single points of failure. The board agreed to request presentations from both Dominion and ClearBallot during budget hearings and to revisit the decision for the next election cycle.
