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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 01-24-2006-9aORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: January 24, 2006 Action Agenda Item No. q -G SUBJECT: Acquisition of Voting Machines DEPARTMENT: Manager/Elections PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No ATTACHMENT(S): 1/18/06 State Board of Elections Executive Director Memo INFORMATION CONTACT: Rod Visser, 919-245-2308 Carolyn Thomas or Pat Sanes, 919-245-2350 PURPOSE: To approve the acquisition of new voting equipment necessary to ensure the County's compliance with State and federal election law. BACKGROUND: There has been considerable discussion during the past several months about changes in State law that have led to the decertification as of January 1, 2006 of existing voting equipment in most North Carolina counties, including Orange. The State Board of Elections has been involved in developing a process under which voting machines certified to be compliant with federal and state election laws can be acquired and installed in time for scheduled May 2006 primary elections in North Carolina. At this writing, the State Board is continuing to work with the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners (NCACC), the one certified voting equipment vendor (ES&S), and the Attorney General's Office to hammer out the process by which counties will acquire and implement the use of new voting equipment. The accompanying January 18, 2006 memo from the Executive Director of the State Board of Elections outlines intended procedures as they stand at this point in time. Each county will receive federal grant money based on the number of voters they had during the November 2004 general election and the number of One-Stop voting locations open for the same election. Based on this formula, Orange County is scheduled to receive $626,025 in grant money. In order for counties to receive their shares of grant funding, each county Board of Elections was required to: • have each Board of Elections member and Director observe 2 machine demonstrations • conduct a public forum • submit to their board of county commissioners their recommendation on the type of equipment they would like to purchase, and • submit their grant award request to the State Board of Elections. Orange County's Board of Elections has met all these requirements. Following a public forum on January 11, 2006, the Board of Elections voted on January 12 to purchase the Optical Scan machine and the AutoMark, both provided by ES&S. The optical machine is basically the same type of machine that Orange County has used for years. The difference in the new machine is that it will notify the voter with a beeping sound if there is a race that was over-voted, a blank ballot, or a ballot that was marked incorrectly. There is a notification scroll board on the machine that will tell the voter what is wrong with the ballot and ask the voter if they wish for the machine to accept the ballot as they voted it, or do they wish for the machine to return the ballot back to the voter for correction. Orange County's current machines do not have that capability. They will accept the ballot as marked and if the machine cannot read it, the ballot goes into the "out-stacked" bin. For out- stacked ballots, precinct officials do an eye-hand count after the polls close and then add those totals to the tabulator voting totals. With the new optical scan machine, all ballots will be totaled as soon as the polls close (with the exception of any write-in votes). The AutoMark is simply a marking device that will allow d ifferently-a bled voters to vote their ballot in privacy. Once the machine marks the ballot, the voter will then place their ballot in the optical scan machine for tabulation. The AutoMark has been tested by people with many different types of challenges and all have felt very comfortable using it. These machines are required by the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) to be in every one of Orange County's 44 precincts, as well as in each of three Orange County One-Stop voting locations. FINANCIAL IMPACT: County staff recommend that the Board of Commissioners appropriate no County dollars towards voting equipment at this time. The State of North Carolina has on hand $626,025 in federal grant money earmarked for the acquisition by Orange County of new voting machines and ancillary equipment and supplies. The accompanying memo from the State Board's Executive Director makes it clear that the State's current intent is to ensure that all grant funds are expended before any County dollars are spent. County Board of Elections staff have developed an estimate that it may cost a total of $649,744, if the County ultimately acquires 3 optical scan machines for each of the County's three one- stop voting sites. However, staff recommend that the County order at this time only as much equipment as will be fully covered by the $626,025 in grant funds. As the voting machine acquisition process continues to evolve at the State level, staff will come back to the Board of Commissioners at a subsequent date if it becomes clear that County funding would be needed to supplement grant funds to ensure Orange County's operational compliance with federal and state election law. RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends that the Board: 1) accept the Orange County Board of Elections' recommendation to acquire optical scan and Automark voting equipment; 2) approve the acceptance of the grant award; and 3) authorize the Manager or his designee, and/or whomever the State Board of Elections may subsequently specify as the appropriate signatory, to execute all documents necessary to the acquisition, installation, and implementation of the new voting equipment. 0 STATE BOARD OF ELECTIONS 6400 Mail Service Center • Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-6400 GARY O. BARTLETT, Executive Director MAILING ADDRESS: P.O. BOX 27255 RALEIGH, NC 27611-7255 January 18, 2006 MEMORANDUM 2006-2 To: Directors, County Boards of Elections From: Gary O. Bartlett, Executive Director This is a follow-up to the MEMORANDUM 2006-1 emailed to you on 1/13/06. Representatives from the Association of County Commissioners, ES&S, the Attorney General's Office and SBE staff met on 1/17/06 to discuss the information contained in this memorandum. It will be helpful for each county to supply the SBE with your current progress in selecting a voting system. Please open the attachment (Voting System Information Form) and complete the requested information, save the file and then email ASAP, an attached copy of the form to brooks. ctarrett-iones(a)_ncmai1.net, but not later than Friday, January 20, 2006,. The information that you supply will assist us in creating an installation plan that will allow for traditional paper ballots, optical scan ballots or Direct Record Electronic systems and insure that each voting jurisdiction receives sufficient assistance, training and staff support for the May primary election. Additional implementation plans being developed: Contract: • Counties will be asked to sign a grant acceptance form which will incorporate by reference standard contract terms.. • The SBE will serve as the fiscal agent for the HAVA grants and make payments to ES&S for voting equipment 10 days after the county has received and accepted the equipment, and notified the SBE. • The SBE's HAVA grant instructions will include an attachment showing the amount of grant funds available for each county, Delivery: • Voting equipment will be shipped by ES&S to a central warehouse in the Raleigh area for staging and User Acceptance Testing (UAT). • The UAT will be supervised by SBE personnel and counties will be invited to observe the testing of their voting equipment. • Upon completion of the UAT, the equipment will be shipped directly to the county for further acceptance and secure storage, • SBE personnel will assist the counties in receiving, accepting, and securing voting equipment. LOCATION: 506 NORTH HARRINGTON STREET 9 RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA 27603 • (919) 733-7173 HAVA Funds: • SBE will remit HAVA grant monies to ES&S for the benefit of the counties so that HAVA funds will be spent before county funds. This will assist counties to spread costs over two budget cycles. • The SBE will work with Information Technology Services, the State Comptroller and the Office of State Budget and Management to ensure that all mandated fiscal controls and policies are put into effect. • Counties opting to utilize a traditional paper ballot for the primary will not lose their right to purchase voting equipment using HAVA funds for the 2006 general election. Election Service Bureau: • SBE and ES&S will be establishing an election service bureau in Raleigh to provide all ballot programming for the primary election. • All ballots will be produced on the Unity software and forwarded to each county for review and signoff approval, prior to distribution to the printer, for printing of absentee, precinct and sample ballots. • SBE will deliver the Unity election database for the primary election to each county and assist in the installation and testing process. Printing: • For the primary election only, all printing of optical scan election ballots will be directed to PrintElect or ES&S. • Instructions about printer certification for local printers will be available in the near future., Training: • At least two (2) training classes will be conducted by ES&S and SBE staff personnel on a district basis at dates to be determined. ? Training Session #1 - "Train the Trainer' classes on voting equipment for the Directors and election technicians. ? Training Session #2 - Election night tabulation procedures and SEIMS vote upload procedures for Election Directors and assigned staff members. ? Additional Training -Web-based training for precinct officials and voter education for the general public.. Paper Ballots: • Counties may choose to use traditional paper ballots in the primary election and are required to have at least one (1) accessible voting machine for each precinct and one-stop site.