Board discusses buying voting machines now amid limits on supervisory funding

At the April 7 meeting, Mr. Witt told the Charlotte County Electoral Board that the Board of Supervisors will not raise several election-related budget lines and suggested the elections office purchase voting machines this fiscal year rather than defer procurement.

Mr. Witt said supervisors would not increase the daily election cost allowance (the transcript references figures of $5,000 per election versus $15,000) and would not increase part-time worker hours above 20. He recommended removing a voting-machine allocation from next year’s budget and buying machines this year. Mr. Witt said the printing and binding line included $8,000 charged to CARES Act funding, and that a voting-machine line appeared as $15,275 in the budget. He also relayed that staff member Eric told the board machine units cost about $1,200 each and that the office needs 16 units (described as two per precinct). The transcript presents these numbers inconsistently; the total cost and whether $15,275 is a per-unit or line-item total are not specified in the record.

Mr. Witt also said laptops would need to be paid from CARES Act funds rather than by the Board of Supervisors, and he asked members to direct any questions to staff by the end of the week.

Why it matters: decisions about when to purchase voting equipment and which funding source to use affect the elections office’s operating budget and the timeline for deployment before upcoming elections. The board did not adopt a final budget decision at this meeting.

Next steps: staff were to follow up and report back at the next meeting for clarification of cost figures and funding sources.