County elections office cites equipment changes, extra counters and process fixes as cost‑saving measures; urges use of drop boxes

County elections staff highlighted several process changes intended to reduce costs and improve efficiency while maintaining election integrity.

Clerk Auditor Ryan Sullivan said the office has increased redundancy with counting equipment (bringing total counters to three) and removed older in‑place scanning machines so ballots are deposited into secure drop boxes and later run through tabulation equipment at the clerk’s facility. “We got rid of all of those machines... we bring all those back and run them through our tabulation equipment that we have here,” Sullivan said, explaining the changes cut maintenance and testing time and reduced overtime costs.

Sullivan emphasized that these operational savings benefited taxpayers and improved speed, while noting an outstanding issue with late mailed ballots: “There were 377 that came in late,” he said, and encouraged voters to use drop boxes or vote in person rather than relying on last‑minute mail. Commissioners praised staff for improved efficiency and asked clarifying questions about the new counters and how often equipment redundancy is tested; Sullivan said the office added faster, newer machines and has multiple units so one failure would not stop processing.

The discussion also covered voter behavior (3,182 voters had requested not to receive mail ballots, the highest the clerk had seen) and the relatively low share of in‑person voting (about 2% of total votes for this primary). The clerk recommended public education on deadlines and clearer drop‑box signage at some postal locations to reduce late returns in future elections.