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Electoral Board reviews costs, vendor contracts and vote-processing plans ahead of Nov. 2021 election
Summary
At the Sept. 2 Charlotte County Electoral Board meeting, the registrar outlined election cost estimates ($15,000–$20,000), L&A testing and a mail-in ballot preprocessing schedule; the board approved an Atlantic Election Services contract and discussed purchasing electronic poll books and accessibility upgrades for voting machines.
The Charlotte County Electoral Board reviewed preparations for the Nov. 2021 election at its Sept. 2 meeting, discussing projected costs, vendor contracts, testing schedules and accessibility concerns.
Registrar provided a preliminary cost estimate for the November election of about $15,000–$20,000, with $5,000–$7,000 earmarked for Officers of Election. He said historical spreadsheets tracking election spending are not available and that such records are needed to plan future budgets.
The board approved a contract with Atlantic Election Services that includes tabulator firmware and software updates at $228 per tabulator per year (down from a prior February price of $325), a $200 per-machine maintenance warranty (optional but recommended given machine costs of roughly $9,000 each), setup fees of $975 for the first ballot style and $525 for each additional style (the election will use six ballot styles), L&A testing at $90 per machine per election, and ballots at $0.23 each. The minutes record the contract approval but do not list a roll-call vote tally.
The board set L&A (logistics and accuracy) testing for Sept. 13 at 1:00 p.m. for machines used in early voting; Atlantic Election Services will perform the testing. For mail-in ballots, the registrar proposed two approaches — holding all ballots until the mandatory week for preprocessing, or preprocessing weekly on Thursdays in October — and the board agreed to preprocess every Thursday in October plus Sept. 26–30 and Nov. 1, beginning at noon on those days. The registrar emphasized that preprocessing requires an Officer of Election from each party to be present and that preprocessing should not proceed without party representation to avoid litigation risk.
The board reviewed Demtech quotes for purchasing electronic poll books (options of 8, 12, 15, 20, and 24 units) and agreed to decide at the October meeting before presenting a proposal to the Board of Supervisors; the minutes note the barcode scanner and training are optional but recommended. Citizen Kurtis Jones questioned the accessibility (handicapped features) of the county's five-year-old voting machines and whether upgrades may be needed; the registrar said other options could be explored.
Registrar confirmed voting-by-mail will begin Oct. 17, with applications due by Oct. 25 at 5:00 p.m.; ballots must be postmarked by Election Day and received by noon the Friday following the election (Nov. 5). The registrar's office will be open two Saturdays in October (Oct. 23 and 30) and closed on Columbus Day. The board also decided to order 100% of ballots for precincts based on prior turnout (typically 60–70%; 74.9% turnout last November).