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Essex County approves contracts for ballot storage, mapping and voting‑system support as officials stress security
Summary
The board approved multiple elections-related contracts — a ballot-move contract, mapping services, electronic poll-pad services and voting-machine programming and warranties — while commissioners and the county clerk described air-gapped tally procedures and defended the county’s paper-ballot approach.
The Essex County Board of County Commissioners approved several contracts tied to election operations, including moving and storing ballots, mapping services and support for electronic poll books and voting machines.
Nicole Amos, Clerk of the Board of Elections, presented a contract award to 3 Brothers Construction to box, wrap and relocate stored ballots while retention rules remain in force; the amount is not to exceed $22,161.53. She also presented a 24‑month mapping services agreement with Remington and Vernick engineers for an amount not to exceed $150,290 to produce statutory maps and SBRS-compatible shapefiles.
Patricia Spango, superintendent of elections, presented a services contract with Knowing (the county’s electronic poll‑pad vendor) to support poll‑book configuration and deployment; Dominion Voting’s representative, Ron Rosania, described a two‑year agreement covering programming, election‑day support, annual license fees per machine and warranties. Commissioners questioned an open-ended allowance and asked for prior-year expenditure figures; the county said it would provide historical numbers.
Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin and vendor Election Graphics described the county’s tally and reporting workflow: Dominion produces a tally export file, and a separate certified reporting system (Bridal/Bridal online) mines the exported data and posts public results. Durkin emphasized that the tally system remains air‑gapped from the Internet and that the county uses hand‑marked paper ballots to preserve voter intent and enable recounts.
Commissioner Luciano noted the board’s familiarity with the Dominion systems and said, for the public record, that elected officials and administrators have had a “very thorough overview” and “the utmost confidence” in the security of the county’s voting process. Contracts were moved and approved by roll-call votes.
