Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Elections topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Dallas County elections officials to review e‑pollbook glitches and poll‑worker payroll errors; award transport contract
Summary
After technical problems with e‑pollbooks and recurring payroll/payment issues for poll workers, the court approved a five‑year contract for transportation of election equipment and asked elections staff to fix payroll processes and PARS contributions.
Dallas County elections staff told the commissioners court on June 25 that the county’s new e‑pollbook system and the payroll process for poll workers produced multiple operational issues during the May election, and commissioners approved a new five‑year agreement for transport of election equipment.
The county elections administrator (referred to in court as Garcia) said connectivity problems occurred between e‑pollbooks and printers and that some devices logged issues showing judges proceeded to print despite “paper not in” error messages. The county will work with the vendor to analyze logs and identify training or hardware fixes. Staff said the county will collect “lessons learned” and propose software and procedural changes before the November cycle.
Separately, several poll workers’ groups have reported payment discrepancies after the county switched payroll platforms. County election staff said a data‑transfer template error caused some duplicate and some missing payments and that most affected workers received corrective payments quickly. The county is reconciling overpayments and underpayments before it submits required retirement contributions to Public Agency Retirement Services (PARS).
“Mistakes happened in our data file transformations when we moved to the new payroll platform,” the elections representative said. “We identified the issues and are balancing the books so we can work with HR and auditors on the correction method.” The court was told that the May election files will be uploaded to PARS this week after reconciling payroll discrepancies.
On worker pay timing, elections staff confirmed scheduled pay dates: early voting pay runs and election‑day pay runs are planned two to three weeks after work periods; the court asked staff to aim for timely and accurate payments and to document improvements.
The court also considered bids to provide transportation for election equipment. Commissioners approved a five‑year, truckload‑based price agreement with Freeman North American Inc. as the lowest responsive bidder based on the new contract structure. Elections officials said the new approach (pricing by truckload rather than per site) better accommodates large metal storage containers and reduces ad hoc charges for tables and supplies. Commissioners requested a route and operations plan from elections staff showing how truckloads and “special” runs will be scheduled per election.
No policy changes were adopted in court; elections staff were directed to finalize reconciliations, file corrected PARS submissions, tighten payroll checks and return with implementation plans for equipment transport before the next major election.
