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Cochise supervisors review $585,000 contingency request for election equipment and vault expansion amid chain-of-custody questions
Summary
County staff asked the Board of Supervisors to approve using $585,000 in contingency funds to buy tabulators, letter-openers and to remodel election space; the work session also included an extended discussion about ballot storage, statutory custody and whether ballots should be held in the treasurer's vault.
Supervisors at a Cochise County work session reviewed a proposal to draw $585,000 from contingency funds to buy two tabulators, two automated letter-openers and to remodel election office space to expand ballot storage and improve public observation areas.
Marty (Elections staff) told the board the package would pay for “two DS 9 fifty's core tabulators and then 2 Optiplex 4 10 letter openers” and for remodeling that would double the ballot storage cage and reconfigure adjacent treasurer space. Staff said the remodel is intended to reduce manual lifting and improve chain-of-custody tracking and public visibility for tabulation and logic-and-accuracy testing.
The board discussed how ballots are stored after canvass and cited a state statute (identified in the meeting as 16-6-24) that the group read as requiring deposit of official returns in a secure facility managed by the county treasurer for a…
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