Commissioner: Taking hard line with the vendor paid off in reduced cost for voting equipment

Butler County commissioners bought a $7.5 million voting machine system Thursday but the bulk of it is state-paid, and software and licensing fees will paid out over 10 years.

County officials have been concerned about the cost for new voting equipment for a couple of years now. The actual local cash outlay is $1.38 million, and the state is picking up $3.2 million for the new iPad-like machines. It will cost the Board of Elections about $2.9 million over 10 years. The Board of Elections already pays around $200,000 for software and licensing, and under the new deal those costs will go up to just more than $100,000 a year.

The Board of Elections recommended a $8.2 million, direct record electronic (DRE) voting machine system to the commissioners in March. The commissioners balked at the high price. After county Administrator Judi Boyko and the Board of Elections went back to their vendor, Dominion, the price dropped almost $700,000.

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Commissioner Don Dixon said having Boyko and the Board of Elections take a hard line with the vendor paid off.

“If they want our business they’re going to have to deal with us. I think it was a group effort, they did a good job,” Dixon said. “They always start out asking retail and then when they get down to counting the real dollars, you can usually get their attention.”

The commissioners not only wanted a price drop, but also guarantees future upgrades — both software and hardware — to be cost-free so they don't get caught off guard by a vendor rendering its product obsolete after only a few years, as was the case with the recent Motorola radio issue.

The communication equipment giant Motorola handed the county a $19 million radio replacement bill because it stopped making the devices first responders all use and stopped servicing the older models last year.

Boyko said the voting machine guarantee is pretty iron-clad.

“We were able to negotiate language into the purchase agreement, ‘in addition licensor warrants that the software will be operable with the hardware throughout the term and no software upgrade provided by the licensor will render the hardware inoperable,’” she read from the agreement. “I think that’s pretty solid language we were able to get.”

The commissioners did not budget for the machines this year because exact costs have fluctuated over time. The $1.38 million will be paid out of funds the county received as a one-time reimbursement from the state for the loss of Medicaid managed care sales tax.

The county lost about $3 million when the federal government outlawed the sales tax collection a couple of years ago and the state handed out one-time cash allotments to counties — money that can’t be used for operations. The county received $2.1 million.

Commissioner T.C. Rogers said he was hoping to be able to pay the bill over two years but “apparently they had already come down enough.” He said choosing a cheaper — paper ballots — system was not a good option.

“They had purchased the best quality, the newest model before so that’s what Butler County voters are accustomed to,” he said. “We think we have also purchased a top of the line that is convenient to use and, of course, accurate.”

Board of Elections Board Member Todd Hall told the Journal-News it’s “not fun when anybody has to spend money,” but the county’s equipment is 15 years old and getting near, if not past, the time when reliability becomes an issue.

MORE: County commissioners balk at $8M voting machine purchase

“I truly believe at the end of the day we made the absolute best decision for the voter when it comes to the voting and I absolutely believe we made the best decision for the taxpayer,” Hall said.

Board of Elections Director Diane Noonan said the new machines will be much easier to use because they are identical to devices people use every day, like cellphones and iPads.

“They are crisper, they’re cleaner, they’re easier to navigate,” Noonan said. “People are so used to iPads, these are like huge iPads. They are very easy to maneuver around in.”

Board of Elections Deputy Director Eric Corbin said staff and poll worker training is part of the package with Dominion. The system will be up and running for the November election this year, including early voting that starts in October.

The elections office started talking about the need for new equipment about five years ago. Two years ago, they brought in six voting machine systems from five vendors so the public could try them out. The estimated cost to taxpayers then was $3 to $6 million.

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