Kootenai County elections staff presented commissioners with a package of FY26 spending requests on May 30 that included a capital plan to replace the county's aging voting equipment and a modest personnel restructuring.

Asa (elections staff) said growing voter rolls and more complex ballots are stretching current equipment and logistics. He summarized five elements of the requested replacement system and related items: a central count and tabulation system; ballot-on-demand printers; precinct ballot scanners; ADA-compliant ballot-marking devices; and implementation support and supplies. Asa told the board the recommended system is Hart's Verity Vanguard, a system being certified to the Voting System Guidelines version 2 (VVSG 2). "We are at a crossroads right now," Asa said, describing physical limits of current machines and logistics of moving equipment to precincts.

Asa presented a capital cost plan the office described to commissioners as "just over $2,000,000" to purchase the new system and associated equipment. He said the elections office proposes funding the purchase from an assigned elections fund balance rather than levying property tax, and noted the county had previously set aside a capital bucket for elections planning. "This isn't just gonna happen tomorrow," Asa said; staff outlined a phased rollout, expected to take multiple elections.

The elections presentation included specific, shorter-term operating requests: the county had purchased 54 additional e-poll books in a prior year and the annual maintenance and support for the enlarged fleet will increase the subscription cost for e-poll books (staff cited about $135 per poll book as the line-item rate). The office asked for $12,824 to buy rolling supply-cart systems to replace heavy plastic supply boxes used by precinct judges, and for modest increases to election supplies and temporary personnel to reflect more complex primaries and an "associate judge" training program for precinct judges.

On personnel, elections staff proposed reorganizing existing positions by creating an elections director and an elections manager and eliminating the current supervisor position; the change keeps total full-time headcount the same but raises total loaded personnel costs by about $11,904, the office said. Staff also said the office will eventually need a sixth permanent FTE focused on technology and supplies as elections grow, but that hire is not requested for FY26.

Context and rationale: Asa reviewed local metrics showing population and registered-voter growth since 2014, a rising share of the population registered to vote (about 56.77 percent in the latest comparison), and high ballots-cast totals in recent elections. The county also receives state election-consolidation funding established in 2011; elections staff budgeted conservatively for $411,000 in state consolidated-election revenues for FY26 and said the fund's CPI linkage has raised revenues in recent years.

Ending: Commissioners heard the presentation and asked operational questions; staff said they will return with procurement details and implementation timelines if the board approves using fund balance to begin the multi-year transition. No formal approval or vote was recorded in the meeting transcript.