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Harnett County elections office reviews $43,000-per-site ballot-on-demand quote for early voting
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Summary
Elections staff presented a vendor quote for ballot-on-demand printing that could reduce ballot ordering waste and errors but carries substantial up-front cost. The board discussed piloting the technology and asked staff to compare long-term savings versus the capital outlay.
Elections staff presented a vendor quote for ballot-on-demand printers as a potential way to reduce ballot ordering errors and waste during early voting.
The quote from Printelex covered equipment sized to support six check-in stations at a single early-voting site and was presented to the board as an estimated capital cost of about $43,000 per site. The director said the county could pilot the system at one precinct or scale the number of check-in stations to lower initial expenditure.
Why it matters: Harnett County must order many different ballot styles for primaries and other elections because unaffiliated voters may choose a partisan ballot at check-in; purchasing on-demand printing could eliminate the need to stock double (or more) quantities of every ballot style and reduce the risk of poll-worker errors that produce wrong ballot styles at the table.
Board discussion: board members asked how the printers would integrate with existing check-in systems and whether the speed would match current processes. Staff explained the voter check-in laptop would send the ballot print job to a separate printer; voters would still sign the check-in device (ATV) but receive a printed ballot from the on-demand printer. The director said a full cost-benefit comparison is pending and will be included for a future meeting.
Next steps: staff will prepare a fiscal comparison of estimated savings on balloting versus initial capital costs and return to the board with a recommendation. No purchase decision was made at this meeting.
