Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Elections Equipment And Admin topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Board of elections seeks $329,000 in equipment and an additional staffer to meet new state deadlines
Summary
Elections officials asked commissioners to fund replacement tabulators, software and a new assistant director to comply with recently tightened state timelines and to speed vote processing during early voting and on election night.
Randolph County elections officials told county commissioners Thursday they are requesting replacement high-speed tabulators, upgraded software and a dedicated assistant director position to meet new state-imposed timelines and to speed processing of ballots during early voting and on election night.
Melissa Kershner, director of the Randolph County Board of Elections, and board chair Margaret Magarian described operational problems during recent elections tied to aging tabulators and printing issues. “It took an hour to an hour and a half to run each of our flash drives,” Kershner said, and she said the county’s existing tabulators are 10 years old or older.
Magarian told the board that the elections office has been subjected to increased statutory requirements, litigation and public scrutiny and said additional staff are needed to maintain accurate and timely reporting. “We feel that the new position is also gonna be necessary,” Magarian said, adding that a second staffer would assist with audits, provisionals, succession planning and faster reporting.
Officials said the requested replacement equipment and software—if purchased as a full replacement package—would cost about $329,000 and would include new tabulators for election day and early voting, spares, upgraded software and a standalone PC to run the vendor software. The office would test new equipment with public demonstrations and a simulated election before placing it into service.
Elections staff emphasized that all voting equipment is stand-alone and not connected to county IT systems; a locked vendor-supplied PC remains the only device that interfaces with the tabulators and is used to upload results to the state board of elections on election night.
The board did not vote on funding at the meeting. Officials said they plan demos of two certified vendors, a public simulation, and a board vote; if the process proceeds as planned, the office hopes to deploy equipment first in a municipal election and then for larger primaries or general elections.
Ending: County commissioners said they would continue budget deliberations and did not take an immediate vote on the equipment request or the additional staff position.
